To the Stars and Back

by LiteratusAO3

Following the Game Station and the Christmas Invasion, Team TARDIS set out to do what they do best: explore the universe, get into trouble, and run for their lives. And as a threat to their happiness grows in the form of a shadowy organisation known only as Torchwood, they learn that the past doesn't always stay buried and the future isn't what they think. (Covers season two.)

48. Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Eight

With a crackle of static and a burst of energy, the Doctor slammed back into his body with such force that he stumbled into a desk. Pain flaring along his thigh, he turned to get a grip on his surroundings and discovered that he was standing in an old, damp office with an old-fashioned space heater warming his ankles and a bewildered Mickey and Rose at his side. His face thrummed with the Wire's energy, small muscles jumping and twitching beneath the surface of his skin, and he pressed his hands to them in an attempt to calm them. Sensitive to the touch, his skin felt as though he had been left out in the sun too long: He prodded at his cheeks and worked his jaw, scrunching his nose and running through a quick checklist to make sure that he had all his limbs and organs.

He would hate to misplace a kidney again.

Satisfied that he was in one piece, even if it was an oversensitive piece that rebelled at the rub of his clothes against his skin, he checked on Mickey and Rose. His friends looked as disoriented as he felt: Rose was sat on the ground staring at her hands, her pink skirt and mass of crinoline puffed up around her, while Mickey cleared his throat with small, repetitive coughs, fingers rubbing at his neck, a frown on his face.

The Doctor's arm spasmed. "Ow. Are you two okay?"

"What was that?" Mickey croaked, coughing harder. "Where the hell were we?"

"Best guess? Inside the Wire." He slipped his uncooperative hand into his pocket and clenched his fingers around his yo-yo before finding a pack of throat soothers that he passed to Mickey. "Try these. It'll help, I think."

"My ears are buzzin'," Rose said, face tilted up and the Doctor watched as a small spark of energy raced across her forehead and disappeared into her hair that instantly lifted into a frazzle. "Did that bitch suck us into the damn TVs?"

"Yeah, I think so," the Doctor said, foot tapping until he pressed all his weight onto the ball of his foot to get it to stop. "Got to say, I think that's a first for me. Don't think I'll be doing it again though. The hangover isn't all that pleasant."

"I'm seein' words," she groaned, dipping her head forwards to pull her hair loose and scrape her fingers against her scalp. "Why'd she let us go?"

"Jack and Zoe," he said. "They saved us. Whatever they've done, they freed us from the Wire." He offered his hand to her, static leaping between their palms before he helped her to her feet. "Come on. We should find them."

Mickey grunted as the static bit him when he touched the door handle. "Where are you, d'you reckon?"

The Doctor stuck his tongue out and tasted the air. "London. We're definitely still in London."

"Narrows it down," Rose said, stepping out of the office into the main room. "Warehouse by the looks of it. Bloody cold."

Drab and full of shadows, the warehouse was interesting only due to the fact it was crowded with people: Some were dressed for the evening, others in day clothes, and a few mingled in their pyjamas. At the centre of the confused crowd were police officers attempting to calm them, the rise of voices swelling until it bounced off the walls and echoed back in on itself, amplifying the chaos. Hand snapping out without looking around, the Doctor caught Mickey who tripped when his leg spasmed violently, teeth clenched together as the energy coursed through him.

"Thanks," Mickey said when his jaw relaxed. "How long's that goin' to happen for?"

"Sure it'll wear off soon enough," the Doctor replied. "Give it a few minutes."

Rose rubbed the back of her neck with a grimace. "D'you think everyone's back?"

"Probably," he said. "The Wire seemed to be storing us as energy rather than eating us when she had the chance. Waiting for the right moment to use it all."

Mickey sighed. "Could you not say things like that? It's creepy."

"True though." He pulled out his phone and saw two missed messages from Zoe that he opened to read. "We're in the right place. Zoe and Jack were here. Says here they got picked up by the police for breaking and entering but nothing after that."

"Hey, you!"

Rose jerked in surprise. "Jesus, Mickey."

Mickey strode off towards the nearest police officer, ignoring a lifetime's experience of treading carefully around police officers in his urgency to track down Jack. Sticking his arm into the crowd of people, he dragged Crabtree out. "Our friends, where are they?"

"Sir, please, we're going to start checking everyone in a few moments," he replied, detaching Mickey's hand from his arm. "If you'll just wait then we can –"

"You arrested them for breakin' in," Mickey interrupted. "An American an' a black woman."

"You mean Jack and Zoe."

"They're the ones," the Doctor said, appearing at Mickey's shoulder. "Where are they?"

"Tommy! Get over here, would you?" Crabtree called out. "Look, I'm sorry, but with everyone coming back it's hell up. Tommy'll tell you what you need to know but I have to get back to work. When you see them though, tell them I said thanks."

Disappearing back into the crowd that clustered around him, their voices tripping on each other to make themselves heard. From around the edges, a young boy that the Doctor recognised from the Connolly's house approached them, his grandmother's arm tucked into the crook of his elbow. He looked tired even as happiness filled every inch of his face, his eyes darting to his grandmother's every few seconds before they reached them.

"You're Jack and Zoe's friends," Tommy said by way of greeting. "They'll be happy you're all right. They were really worried about you."

"That sounds like them," the Doctor said. "Are they all right?"

"Last time I saw them, yeah," he replied. "They were going to Alexandra Palace, you know, the big broadcasting centre? Zoe said – well, she said a lot of things that I didn't really understand but I think they were going to try and stop the Wire by looping its energy in on itself."

Rose glanced at the Doctor. "Does that make sense?"

"Absolutely it does," he said. "That's a good idea."

"When was this?" Mickey asked. "When did you last see them?"

Tommy checked his watch. "About thirty minutes ago. They had to get there before 11.15 because the Wire was going to use the coronation to kill everyone, I think."

"Blimey," the Doctor blinked. "You've really been involved, haven't you? How'd you get dragged into all of this?"

"They needed help," he admitted with a lopsided smile. "Zoe stopped me going with them though, she said it was too dangerous. They said they'd come back here afterwards."

"I'm impatient so we're going to go to them," the Doctor replied, directing a smile at Tommy's grandmother. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. It seems your grandson's been busy rescuing you this morning."

Her face creased into a smile. "Course he has. He's a brave boy is my Tommy."

"Gran." Tommy looked down at his feet, skin burning red even as a small, pleased smile twisted at his lips. "And I didn't do much. Zoe's the one who built this thing – I don't know what it was but it was like this radio that was going to trap the Wire. She used all sorts from the shop. It was so cool."

The Doctor pressed his lips together, delighted by someone other than him impressed by Zoe. "I bet it was. Make sure you get her home safe, okay? We're going to go find Jack and Zoe. Make sure they haven't done something stupid like got themselves killed in the effort."

"Is that likely?" Mickey asked, panicked.

Rose rolled her eyes. "You just had to set him off."

"It's not likely, that was hyperbole, sorry about that," the Doctor apologised. "Tommy, thanks for the info."

"Wait!" Tommy stepped away from his grandmother, gently letting her arm fall from his, hand stretching out to touch the Doctor's arm, pulling back at the last minute. "Can you –? Please tell Zoe not leave without saying goodbye. There's still – I have more questions. And – and I'd like to know they're both okay."

"I promise we'll come and say goodbye." The Doctor dragged his fingers over his chest. "Cross my hearts."

Turning from them, he paused for half a second at the realisation that Mickey was halfway across the warehouse floor heading towards the door. Rose raised her eyebrows at him, silently condemning him for his ill-thought words: Ever since Jack's kidnapping at the hands of the Time Agency, Mickey had turned into an anxious, overprotective mother hen when it came to Jack's safety and the Doctor knew better than to make light of a dangerous situation.

"You're an idiot," Rose said, sliding her arm through his. "What d'you have to go an' say that for?"

"I wasn't thinking," the Doctor replied, scuffing his shoe against the ground as they hurried to catch up with Mickey, aware that he would leave them behind if they took too long. "But I really don't think the Wire will have killed them. What would be the point?"

"What's the point with murder ever?"

"Well..." he floundered. "Good point but with everyone returned to their bodies, the probability of Jack and Zoe surviving the encounter is in the high nineties. There's a bigger likelihood that they either got fried by the energy when it looped back around, which wouldn't kill them but would scramble their brains for a bit, or they were knocked unconscious by it. Neither particularly life threatening."

"Honestly," Rose said. "Back in Dad's universe, you were worried sick about her an' now you're all relaxed an' calm."

"Difference is Jack's with her this time," he replied, passing through the door and out into the sunlight. "If she's alone, I worry. If she's with at least one of us, I don't worry as much. We all take care of each other."

"Oi, Doctor!" Mickey stood at the end of the street, sunlight falling against his back. "Which way to Alexandra Palace?"

"If you held up for five seconds I could lead the way."

"You walk like you've got lead in your shoes," he complained, shifting agitatedly as he waited for them at the mouth of the road. "Zoe's there too, y'know?"

"I'm well aware." He and Rose moved quicker to cover the distance between them and Mickey. "And they're fine, I'm sure of it. Haven't you tried calling Jack yet?"

Mickey flashed the phone in his hand. "Course I have. I'm not thick. He's not answerin', neither's Zo."

"Their proximity to the energy feedback might've caused their phones to fritz out," the Doctor theorised. "Not to worry, they're fine. They're absolutely perfectly 156% fine." Rose squeezed his arm, warning him not to overdo it. "Alexandra Palace is this way. Follow me. We'll be there in no time. Well, twenty minutes give or take. Depends how fast we walk."

Sweeping past them with an imperious the Doctor associated with Cleopatra, Mickey set the pace and left the Doctor and Rose to keep up.

---

Fifteen minutes away at Alexandra Palace, Zoe opened her eyes with a groan and lifted her cheek from the cold and filthy concrete floor. Dragging her sleeve across her cheek, she pressed her hand to her chest and felt the rapid beating of her heart from the massive dose of energy that had fed itself through the console, frying every inch of the wiring, and up her arms. Having been lifted from her feet and thrown back, rendered temporarily unconscious as her body rebelled at the unexpected energy surge, she was disoriented and more than a little grumpy. As she took a deep breath to slow her heart rate, she reached above her and heaved herself back onto her feet, pressing at a button to try and make the console work.

"Yeah," she sighed. "You're dead. That's going to confuse some people."

Hissing as she stood up straight, rolling her shoulders and neck, she allowed herself one brief moment of victory to roll through her, satisfaction settling in her bones, before worry for Jack consumed her.

Casting a quick eye around the room to make sure she hadn't dropped anything that might give Torchwood pause for thought, she left the room at a run. Her heels clipped against the ground, a sharp staccato beat to match the pace of her heart, and she pushed through the open side door that flapped in the breeze, rattling against its frame. The sky had brightened from its cloudy beginnings, bright blue with a taste of summer in the air, and she dragged 1953 into her lungs.

"Jack!"

The transmitter tower loomed above her and when she passed through the fractured shadow it cast, a chill washed over her. She called out his name again, mouth dry and fear reaching its cold fingers up through her stomach to squeeze at her heart, terrified she had miscalculated with the radio. Fingers trembling, she moved them as she tried to remember if she had crossed the yellow wire with the green or with the red, mimicking the actions she took in Magpie's shop, pausing as uncertainty gripped her.

"Yellow with green," Zoe muttered, throat thickening with fear and grief. "Or was it yellow with red? Shit. Yellow with –" her face twisted, hands dropping to her side. "No, no, no, no, no. JACK! Jack, for fuck's sake! Jack!"

Holding her breath so all she was able to hear was the rush of blood through her ears and the pounding of her heart, there was silence before –

"Zoe?"

"Oh, thank god," she breathed, relief weakening her knees and fear loosening its grip on her: Definitely yellow with green not yellow with red. "Where the hell are you?"

"I think I'm in the bin."

She turned on the spot, searching for a bin large enough to contain one fully-grown Jack Harkness, and found it at the end of the building fifty feet from where she stood. Jesus she thought as she hurried down the concrete path towards the large, industrial-sized rubbish bin that was pushed up against the wall. Rustling came from within, and she grabbed hold of the edge and lifted herself up to balance her weight on her arms. Inside on a bed of stinking, leaking rubbish bags that oozed something dirt colour onto his thigh, Jack lay staring up at her: Dazed and electrified, his hair stood up in every direction and the faint smell of burning rose from him.

"You're alive," Zoe said. "You had me worried there for a second."

His throat moved in a slow swallow. "I'm lying in rubbish."

"Yeah, yeah you are."

"I flew a very long way and landed in rubbish."

"Well..." she paused, eyes sweeping over him for any injuries that might have been concealed by the filth he was resting in. "It could've been worse. You could've landed on the concrete instead. At least this was a softer landing."

Jack lifted his hand from the top of a bag, face contorting with disgust as he flicked a rotten banana peel from his fingers. "I would've preferred the concrete. I'm going to need a decontamination shower after this."

"You're okay," she sighed, hooking her leg over the edge of the bin to sit on it and take the pressure from her arms. "If you're complaining, you're okay. That's really comforting. If you'd died, I was going to thump you."

"Glad I missed that," he said, flexing his fingers. "Did it work? Is the Wire wherever it's supposed to be?"

"I think so, yeah." Carefully judging where to land and settling on a clean and mildly damp broken up cardboard box, Zoe dropped into the bin: One heel sliced through the cardboard, bin juice threateningly close to her bare skin. She took Jack's hands in hers, the static making her startle, and helped him sit up. "It's gone at least and took out the console room with it. Kind of hoping that doesn't have knock-on temporal effects. Where's Magpie anyway? I didn't see him when I came out."

"Dead," Jack said, foot slipping in rotten food as he tried to get to his feet. "The Wire killed him."

"Christ," she sighed. "Not a surprise though, really."

Jack fell into Zoe, hand curling around her hip. "Zo, I think my insides are vibrating. I don't like it."

"That does sound pretty horrible," she told him, arm settling around his waist. "C'mon, I'll drive us back to the warehouse as best I can. I'm hoping that by defeating the Wire we've freed everyone from the TV. If we haven't, we're going to need the TARDIS to figure this next bit out."

It was a struggle to get Jack out of the bin as his body kept jerking when leftover energy raced through him, seizing his muscles up. Pushing him from behind, touching parts of him she preferred not to, Zoe winced through her teeth when he flailed over the edge of the bin and landed on his back: A low, drawn out moan of pain rose up to her. Quickly following him and flicking bin juice off her shoes, she got him to his feet again, hooked the smoking radio over her shoulder and began their staggered walk towards the car.

As they passed the security guard, who was in high spirits as the coronation had gone off without a hitch, he bowed obsequiously at Jack.

"I think I like being royalty," Jack said, teeth clenching when static leapt between him and the metal of the car that Zoe leaned him against. "It's very respectful."

Pulling open the passenger's side door, she looked up at him. "Right up until they chop your head off."

"Yeah, but how often does that actually happen?"

"Charles I, Louis XVII, Anne Boleyn, Mary of Scots –"

"The fact you know those names off the top of your head is concerning," he said as she pushed him inside the car.

"I like history," Zoe said. "Now, buckle up. You know what my driving's like."

Sliding into the driver's seat, she eyed the steering wheel and gear box with an uncertainty that stemmed from never having taken any form of driving lessons in her life. While passing the theory test the day she turned seventeen with the idea of eventually learning how to drive gave her theoretical knowledge of how driving was supposed to work, meeting the Doctor had stopped her from gaining any practical experience. Testing the gear stick, she reached for the key only to discover that Jack had hot-wired the car and she was forced to press two exposed wires together repeatedly until the engine caught and the car rumbled beneath them.

"Right, this is easy," Zoe said, immediately stalling the car when she lifted her foot too quickly from the clutch. Jack coughed once, politely hiding his laughter, and she sighed, repeating her actions. "I can do this. If I can fly the TARDIS, I can do this."

"That's the spirit," Jack replied. "Think positively."

"Shut up."

He laughed, fingers curling around the handle as she jerked them out of Alexandra Palace and onto the street, learning fast enough what made for a smooth ride and Jack eventually eased his grip on the door. Forced to move slowly as, with the crowning over, people spilled onto the streets that were lined with tables, ready for the celebration. Although the coronation itself wasn't over, no one seemed inclined to watch it all the way through, and Zoe later learnt that it was three hours long – and were eager to start the celebrations early.

"I can't remember seeing the streets like this before," Zoe said, narrowly avoiding a cat that lazily wove between the wheels of the car. "We haven't really had any big celebrations in my time."

"Charles and Diana?"

"That was eight years before I was born." The temptation to reach out the window and snatch a sausage roll up was strong, hunger beginning to make itself known in the pit of her stomach. "Biggest thing that happened in my time was probably the anti-war march in 2003. Not exactly the same atmosphere though, y'know?"

"Anti-war protest in comparison to a wedding? Yeah, I see the difference." He reached out and tapped her thigh, smile spreading across his face. "Look. There."

Zoe ducked her head down to look through the windscreen clearly and happiness spooled through her. The Doctor, Mickey, and Rose were walking down the street, clearly making their way to Alexandra Palace, their faces where they should be. Pulling the handbrake on and removing her foot swiftly from the clutch to kill the engine, she jumped out of the car a beat after Jack who jogged down the street towards their friends. The Doctor and Rose split around Mickey and Jack as they embraced, kissing without a care for who saw them, aware that it would take a few minutes before Mickey was convinced Jack was well enough to let him go.

"Hello, hello," the Doctor greeted, cheerfully as Zoe sank her fingers into his jacket and drew Rose in for a tight, one-armed hug. "Been having fun without us?"

"I ought to bloody smack you for getting yourselves taken like you did," Zoe said, releasing her sister to turn to the Doctor. "How d'you think we felt seeing you lot all faceless like you were? We've been worried bloody sick about you."

The Doctor reached out and, with gentle fingers, smoothed a loose curl of hair back from her face, her frustration and anger softening immediately. "Sorry about that. The damned thing took us by surprise."

"Oh god," Rose groaned, turning on her heels. "You're going to kiss."

Zoe stepped into the Doctor's space, a pleased shiver passing through her when his body instantly reacted to her presence by his arms wrapping around her and his face dipping to hers. Rose sighed and kept her back to them as she looked out over the celebrations as they kissed behind her, pleased that they were quieter when kissing than Jack and Mickey were. The soft and fragilemurmur of Zoe's voice – don't scare me like that – and the Doctor's gentle reassurances, so much softer and intimate than Rose had ever heard from him, made her want to be anywhere else but there.

Checking her nails and noting that the baby pink colour she had painted on them that morning was still in tact, she counted to twenty in her mind before turning back, relieved to see that they were only hugging when her eyes fell on them.

"Ow!" Rose jumped when Jack wrapped his arms around her, sharp static biting at her. "God, what was that?"

"Sorry," Jack apologised, removing his arms and air kissing her instead. "I got very slightly electrocuted when we were sorting everything out and ended up in a bin. It was all very heroic."

"A bin?" Mickey asked, sniffing him. "You do smell a little...ripe."

"Bin juice," he nodded. "It was awful and I'd very much like to shower as soon as possible. And also burn these clothes. I'll never be wearing this again."

"Not fit for a king?" Zoe asked.

He snorted. "Hardly."

"You're a king now?" The Doctor ran his fingers lightly over Zoe's shoulder as he spoke. "How'd that happen?"

"Psychic paper," he explained. "I'm the king of Switzerland now."

Fingers pausing against Zoe's skin, he frowned. "Switzerland doesn't have a king."

"Excellent," Jack replied. "You can keep Zoe company since you're both no longer invited to my coronation."

"Can I come?" Rose asked, hopefully. "I've never been to a coronation before, except my own now that I think about it. Although that wasn't really fun. Get them to give you like a papier-mâché crown instead of the really heavy one otherwise your neck will be killin' you."

"Good advice, thank you." He held out his free hand for her to take, their fingers linking together. "So that's us three for the coronation and you two can do whatever it is you do when we're not around."

Rose pointed a firm finger at them. "Don't tell us."

Zoe laughed and leaned further into the Doctor's embrace. "Are you sure you're all are okay? You don't have any weird side effects or anything, do you?"

"Nothin' yet," Rose replied. "Too early to tell though, isn't it?"

The Doctor rested his chin on the top of Zoe's head. "That's a bit pessimistic for you, Rose Tyler."

"Not wrong though, is she?" Mickey said. "Stuff we get up to, we could be minding our own business an' before you know it we've got six heads each an' digestive problems."

"Well, that's a but unlikely," he said, mouth twitching. "What would you even do with six heads?"

"I've got an idea or two," Jack said, face splitting into a smile at their groans and complaints. "Can we please get out of here now? I really do want a shower. I think there's something running down my spine and I'm afraid to check." Mickey ducked behind him and lifted Jack's shirt, peeling something off his back and throwing it away before anyone could see it. "What was –?"

"Don't ask," Mickey said, quickly. "It's best if you don't know."

"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross." A full-body shudder went through him. "TARDIS now."

Hands joined with Mickey and Rose, he dragged them past the Doctor and Zoe and made him way up the street in search of the TARDIS. Zoe watched him go with a smile, in no mood to stop him as she was certain that while the shower was a large part of why he wanted to get back to the TARDIS, he was also eager to get out of 1953 as soon as possible. Turning in the Doctor's arms, she looked up at him, his thumb brushing lightly across her cheekbone and resting briefly on her freckles, pleased they had a moment alone.

"Before we catch up with them, your friend wants to see you again," the Doctor told her.

"I have a friend?"

"Young Tommy."

"Tommy." Her face softened with delight. "Is his grandmother okay? Did Crabtree get his voice back? And is Bishop okay?"

"His grandmother's fine, and I don't know who Crabtree and Bishop are but I'm sure they're okay." Letting his fingers fall from her face, he took her hand. "I think Tommy fancies you, by the way."

"Shut up," she said, embarrassed. "He's just never met anyone like me before, that's all."

"That's definitely true," he said, leaning in to kiss her again. "You are one of a kind."

Her hand splayed across his chest, nose brushing against his. "Let's go then. I may not need a shower as badly as Jack but these shoes are killing me."

"Serves you right for wearing them," the Doctor said, pulling back. "You know you don't have to dress like this to cheer me up, don't you?"

"Who said I was doing this for you?"

"Rose and Mickey."

"Traitors." She was going to put frogspawn in their beds when she got home. "And I like dressing up for you sometimes. If we'd gone to Elvis as planned, I wouldn't be in pain right now. Besides –" she played with his tie, looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes in a way that made his breath catch. "Do you not like what I'm wearing?"

"Er –" mouth dry, the Doctor realised that discussing her outfit on a public street was not the best idea he had ever had as their bedroom was too far away. "I quite like – that is to say – you always look –"

She laughed and released his tie. "That wasn't a trick question."

"It is very distracting this." His hand ghosted over her hip, brushing over the tight material. "In the best possible way. Do we have to stay long with Tommy? I'd like to get you home and into bed as soon as possible."

"Just to say goodbye," she promised, stepping back from him and pulling the radio from her shoulder, handing it to him. "Keep yourself busy with this in the meantime. The Wire's in there, or at least it should be unless I accidentally killed it."

The Doctor lifted the radio to his ear and rattled it. "Nope, it's in there all right. This is a bit nifty. What is it?"

"I made it," she said. "It reversed the energy of the Wire back in on itself so when it tried to reach out to the TVs across Britain, it reached out to itself instead and got trapped in that radio."

"Oh, I like this." His eyes turned bright with curiosity, desire to get her home forgotten. "How long did this take you?"

"About twenty minutes," she replied. "You may want to double check it to make sure the Wire can't get out." He murmured a distracted agreement, turning the radio over in his hands, exploring the design of it. "What are we going to do with it anyway? Jack says we should take it back to wherever it came from but I've got no idea what species it is, and they executed it once before so my guess is that it shouldn't be allowed out and about like it has been."

"Typical, an escaped prisoner." He stuck his hand in his pocket and frowned. "Where's my –?"

"Here." Zoe held the sonic screwdriver out to him, having lifted it from Jack's pocket when she was helping him out of the bin. "You dropped it in Magpie's."

"Thank you very much," he replied, fiddling with the settings and pressing it against the base of the radio. "There we go. That'll neutralise the bugger for a bit. Give us time to figure out where to send it." He looked up with a grin. "Right then. Shall we make our goodbyes? I don't know about you but I need a cup of tea and you naked as fast as possible."

---

"Tommy, come on!" Kathy de Waal circled her fingers around his wrist when she appeared at his side, the street filled with the noise and jubilation of a freshly crowned queen and the end of a month of fear and confusion with the return of the faceless. "If we don't hurry up we're going to miss all the good food. Mrs Khan's made her samosas and I really want some."

His skin burned where she touched it, her apple red cheeks tightening a grip on his heart that left him breathless. Behind him, he felt his mother and grandmother exchange an amused look, safe to tease him about his crush on Kathy without Mr Connolly around to take it too far. Tommy's gut squirmed with discomfort at the memory of some of the things his father had said about Kathy, alcohol wafting off his breath, sweat clinging to the edges of his moustache as he leaned in close: you want to find out what's beneath those skirts she wears, eh, son? Find out if her thighs are as dimpled as her smile? It was hard to look at Kathy without hearing those words in his head, mouth drying out as the remembered scent of whiskey pressed into his nose.

"Kathy, I –" his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, sweat trickling down his spine despite the fact it wasn't that hot. "I can't – my gran –"

"Don't mind me, sweetheart," Gran said, happily sat at the table in her nightgown sipping her cup of tea and making her way through a plateful of food, her appetite strong and healthy. "You go off with Kathy here and have some fun."

Rita picked up her handbag that was sat next to her mother's feet and removed two shillings and a halfpenny, pressing them into his hand. "Go on, darling. Take Kathy and go buy yourself some ice cream. Mr Gafferty is down the way selling some. You should be off having fun instead of keeping us old women company."

"Old?" Gran scoffed. "Speak for yourself, Rita dear. I'm just getting started. You watch me later, Tommy love. I'm going to be dancing up a streak, mark my words."

"Reckon my grandpappy wouldn't say no to a dance with you, Mrs Marks," Kathy said, cheeks dimpling in a smile, heat returning to Tommy's skin. "He's been worried about you since everything. Wanted to come over and check but Ma said not to be so nosey. I bet if you asked him, he'd take a turn with you."

"Ask him?" She repeated as though the idea had never occurred to her. "Now that is modern. A lady asking a man to dance? I know it's 1953, dear, but I've never heard the like."

Kathy's laughter spilled over him like warm sunshine. "We've got a queen on the throne now, ma'am. Why shouldn't a woman ask someone to dance? I'm going to ask Tommy later."

Tommy choked on nothing, skin flaming red, panic in his eyes. "You are?"

"You don't need to look so scared," she laughed. "Of course I am. You're the only one around here who's nice and respectful. Or do you think I should dance with Danny Peters instead? He's called Octopus Hands for a reason."

"Danny Peters?" Rita repeated. "Is he really?"

"Doesn't seem to understand the word no, Mrs Connolly," Kathy said with a bob of her head. "Although maybe he does now. He was stepping out with Betty Ryan –"

"Not one of the Ryans who hang about with the Kray boys, surely?" Gran asked, surprised. "I can't believe Leland would let that happen."

"Mr Peters didn't know about it," Kathy continued. "But Danny got himself into a spot of bother when he got handsy with Betty and she pushed him into the Moselle when they were going through Queen's Park in Hornsey. She gave him a right proper lecture and he's been quiet ever since. Think he's afraid someone from the Firm will come over to give him a seeing too."

"Well, I never," Rita said, fingers touching her pearls even as a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. "Not that I condone such behaviour but that's what happens when you cross a Ryan. Every fool and their mother knows what the Ryans are up to."

"Mum!" Tommy stared at her, torn between amusement and horror, automatically glancing around for his father, afraid of what Mr Connolly would do if he heard what Rita had said as he was terrified of the Krays. Instead of his father, he saw – "Zoe!"

Pulling out of Kathy's loose, warm grip on his wrist, he hurried through the crowd towards her. The moment he was close enough he lunged for her and hugged her, taking both of them by surprise. Rocking back in surprise, it took her a long second to react to his hug but, when she did, both arms came around him and hugged him back with a fondness that Tommy felt in his bones. Embarrassed, he pulled back from her and managed a grin.

"You did it," he said. "You saved them."

"With a lot of help from you and Jack and the detectives," Zoe said, smiling. "How's your gran? Is she okay?"

"She's great, it's like nothing ever happened," Tommy said. "She's over there with Mum."

He looked back as he gestured, heart hammering against his chest when he caught sight of Kathy's face: A tight, pained look of jealousy on her face, her hands brought together in front of her as she shot discreet looks at Zoe and found herself wanting. Guilt pricking at him though he didn't know why, he stepped back from Zoe and looked up at her.

"Can I introduce you?"

"I'd be delighted," she said, taking the arm that he offered her.

Tommy felt grown as he made his way back up the pavement with Zoe at his side, aware that they were attracting strange and curious looks but he didn't care. For years he had walked the street with his head down and shoulders hunched to hide the evidence of his father's rage and the paucity of their finances. Everyone on the street knew what Eddie Connolly was like: They heard Rita screaming at her husband, begging him to stop hitting his son, putting her body between the two of them, and they all knew that whenever he got paid for whatever job he was doing that month, he would spend it all on alcohol and not leave enough for food for the family.

Tommy had been at the receiving end of the street's generosity for years with new shoes and a thick winter coat and school fees that were paid so he was able to get an education and avoid learning a trade for a little longer. He didn't resent the charity, pleased with the way it eased some of the weight from his mother's shoulders, but he enjoyed them looking at him and seeing Tommy Connolly the man who had helped save the world rather than the poor boy with the abusive father.

"Mrs Connolly, good morning again," Zoe said when they reached his family, extending her hand. "Sorry for taking off with your son this morning but my friend and I needed his help. I don't know if he's been too modest to tell you but without his help, a lot of people would've died today and the repercussions would've been unpleasant to say the least."

"Tommy, you didn't tell us that," Rita said. "You did all that?"

"I did a little," he admitted, looking down at his scuffed shoes. "Zoe did most of it. She built this thing – an energy looper – in about twenty minutes. It was amazing, Mum, you should've seen it."

A strange mixture of pride and sadness played across Rita's face, the realisation that her son was nearly a man settling in her chest.

"You'll have to tell us all about it at dinner," Rita told him.

"Don't leave out the good bits," Zoe said, nudging him with her elbow. "He was the one who realised exactly when the attack was taking place. Jack and I would've missed it if it wasn't for him."

With a head that felt as though it had been lit on fire, Tommy cleared his throat. "This is my gran. Gran, this is Zoe – er – what's your last name?"

"Tyler," she said. "Zoe Tyler."

He memorised her name, fascinated by how a person like Zoe had such an ordinary name. "She's the one who saved you."

"Then you're the one I should be thanking then, dear," Gran said. "Wasn't all that nice being wherever we were."

Zoe's eyes settled on her face. "What was it like there?"

"It was like..." she frowned, her loose skin creasing into heavy folds. "Loud darkness."

"Huh."

Tommy looked up at her. "Does that mean anything? Loud darkness?"

"Means the dark was pretty dark," Zoe said, shrugging slightly. "Sometimes things just are what they are and –" she took a step back and bumped into Kathy, turning. "Oh, hello. Sorry about that, I didn't see you there. Who are you then? Is this a sister? You didn't mention you have a sister."

Kathy's face fell.

"No, this is Kathy," Tommy said, quickly. "She's my – she's a friend. My friend."

"Lovely to meet you," Zoe smiled. "Any friend of Tommy's is a friend of mine."

"It's very nice to meet you too," Kathy said in a low, polite murmur as her hands fluttered over her the belt of her skirt, feeling ungainly next to her.

"Do you all mind if I steal Tommy away for a bit?" She asked them. "No end of the world type event this time. I just want to have a quick chat before I leave town."

Not giving any of them an opportunity to refuse him more time with Zoe, he offered his arm to her again and led her away from his family and Kathy. They walked in comfortable silence until they reached a low stone wall that was set back from the party, keeping them out of the way of anyone who wanted to pass them by. For all that he desired to be in her company, Tommy found himself at a loss for something to say. Instead, he watched her lean down at rub at the back of her foot that was red and blistered.

"Are you okay?" He blurted out. "Your foot – was that the Wire?"

"No." A smile curled across his mouth. "This is fashion, unfortunately. I wasn't expecting to be here today and didn't dress appropriately. Believe it or not, this isn't what I wear on a day-to-day basis."

Tommy tried to imagine her in a cardigan and skirt and failed. "Oh."

"How are you?" Zoe asked, sliding her shoe back on and ignoring the dull pain. "This morning was a lot."

"I don't know what happened," he admitted. "You and Jack were saying a lot of stuff about aliens and time travel and I think – I think I understand it but I don't really get it, you know?"

She placed her hands on either side of her and looked at him, hair falling from where it was pinned. "Do you want to know? Remember what I said to Mr Bishop: Once you know, you can't unknow. And you really do deserve a better life than seeing something in the shadows every time you hear something that makes you jump."

Tommy studied his hands. "I'm not a child."

"I didn't say you were."

"I helped today."

"You did."

"I can handle the truth," he said, meeting her eyes. "You don't need to protect me from it. Whatever it is, I want to know it."

Zoe stared at him, a small smile curving the corners of her mouth. "You remind me of myself when I was your age. I think it's why I like you so much. I'd have demanded to know the truth as well, even if I wasn't ready for it. It's funny, I don't think I've changed all that much from when I was your age but I have. Meeting you and spending time with you, it's made me realise how much I have changed."

"Is that a bad thing?" Tommy asked.

"Change isn't bad," she said, looking away from him. "I guess I'm just feeling a little nostalgic, that's all. It's silly." Breathing out, she straightened up and put her hands in her lap. "Last chance. Walk away now and keep your world exactly the same, no judgement."

He was shaking his head before she finished. "It's not the same though. I've met you. You've changed everything for me. The last few hours...how can I look at the world the same when I know that there are things that can kill people through the TV?"

"That is a very good point," Zoe replied. "All right. I'll tell you." Tommy held his breath, excited and afraid in equal measure. "The Wire was a member of an alien species. After it was executed by its people, it fled across the stars and ended up here on Earth. It's plan was to drain the life's energy from millions of people across the country in order to give it corporeal form again. After that I don't know what it's plan was but I can make a few educated guesses. It doesn't matter though because Jack managed to trap it in the device I built from the radio in Magpie's shop. We're going to take it back to its people once we figure out exactly where it comes from so it can't do this again."

The words washed over Tommy and rendered him insensible. His mind worked over time as he tried to make sense of what he had already half theorised: Between all the talk about aliens and time travel and Jack's tirade towards his father, he had put two and two together. But it was one thing thinking that something was true and it was another to have it confirmed by the maddest and most remarkable person he had ever met. Every time he opened his mouth to ask her a question, he shut it, a new one clamouring for his attention. In the end, he released a long, slow sigh.

"Okay."

Zoe sipped the cup of tea she had fetched while he was coming to terms with his new truth and rested the base against her thigh. "Okay?"

"I'm okay," he said.

"Well, that's good news, I'd hate to have to tell you family I'd broken you," she replied, a small joke that brought a bigger grin than it deserved to his face. "Should've known you'd be fine with it. You didn't have any problems earlier."

A thought struck Tommy. "Are you an alien?"

"I bet it'd explain a lot if I were, right?" Unable to keep the smile from his face, he gave a small, apologetic shrug. "I'm not. I'm human. From London, actually, I was born over in Peckham about forty years from now."

His eyes lit up. "You're from the future?"

"The near future but yes, I am."

"That's so cool."

"You'll get there soon enough," she said. "You can see it for yourself."

"How do you know about aliens then?" Tommy asked. "Do aliens make contact with us?"

"Sadly, no," she said. "Well, yes, in a way but not what you're thinking. Honestly, Christmas 2006 you should probably spend indoors. What's your blood type?" He stared at her. "Never mind, just be careful around then. Also, maybe avoid Downing Street in March the same year. Get out of London entirely." She took a large drink of her tea. "Forget I said all that. That was a whole bunch of spoilers there. What was your question?"

Tommy knew she was speaking English but the words made no sense in the order she put them in and so he bypassed them entirely. "How do you know about aliens?"

"Right, thank you," Zoe replied, shifting to get more comfortable. "I met an alien about fourteen years ago and I've been travelling with him more or less since then."

"That's so..." he struggled to find his words. "Is Jack the alien?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No. He's human like us. Just from way, way, way in the future. You and me, we're both from the 20th century: Jack though, he's from the 51st century."

Tommy blinked rapidly. "That's...I think...I suppose that explains his – y'know?"

He gestured at his face and her eyes crinkled when she smiled.

"Yeah, he is pretty handsome, isn't he?" She finished her tea and passed the cup to Mr and Mrs Gallagher as they walked past, arms looped around each other, happiness and love shining from them. "But the alien is – blimey, where is he? He got dragged away by a little old woman with a plate of samosas when we got here. Honestly, give that man company and food and he'll disappear for hours – ah! There he is." She pointed towards the end of the street where a group of children had gathered around the Doctor and Mrs Khan. "Next to that woman in the sari with all the kids at his feet."

Tommy recognised him from earlier. "He's an alien?"

"Yep."

"But he looks human."

"He always says that we look Time Lord because they came first," Zoe said. "But he's alien. Got two hearts and everything."

"He does not!"

"He does," she grinned. "Have I completely blown your mind yet?"

"I think I'm dreaming. Ow!" Tommy clapped a hand to his thigh where Zoe had pinched him. "What was that for?"

"Letting you know you're not asleep."

"Thanks, I think." Rubbing his thigh, he found himself examining her face more closely. "How come you're here then? Did you know that the Wire was here? Is this what you do? Go around places and save them?"

"No, kind of, it sort of just happens without any really intent on our part," Zoe said, honestly. "And we're here because we were actually planning to see Elvis Presley in New York. He has a concert sometime this year we wanted to see but our ship sort of has a mind of its own and brought us here instead because she knew about the Wire and knew that you needed our help."

Tommy pressed his face into his hands. "This isn't real."

"Yeah, I know." She patted his back, comfortingly. "First time I learnt about all of this it was a lot for me too."

Peering at her from between his fingers, he asked the question he would ask himself every day of his life. "Why are you telling me the truth? You could've lied."

"Because you asked," Zoe replied. "And, like I said, I suppose I see myself in you a little bit. I don't know. Maybe it's a mistake to tell you all this but I know that I'd want to know the truth in your place so there you go."

"I don't – I'm not –" Tommy floundered for words. "I'm not special."

"Tommy." His name left her mouth on a breath, her hands lifting to cup his face between them, and the desire to cry pulsed through him. "You are special. I don't care what your father has led you to believe but you're so incredibly special. Please don't forget that."

Emotion thickening in his throat, his eyes burning with unshed tears, he grasped hold of her wrists. "Take me with you? Please. I want to – I want to see everything. I want you to teach me everything you know. I've never – you're the most interesting person I've ever met. Please take me with you."

"Tommy –" he knew the answer before she said it and disappointment crashed through him. "I'm sorry. It's not that you're not amazing and special and someone I wouldn't want to have onboard but it's too dangerous. You're not done growing yet."

He pulled out of her hands and stood, the extra height he achieved over her seated form made him feel more in control. "I'm too young?"

"Yes," she said, honestly.

"I'm fifteen!" The bitterness dripped from him. "I'm going to be sixteen in August. That's old enough."

"It's not," Zoe told him. "I was seventeen when I started travelling with the Doctor and that wasn't old enough for the things that were coming my way. I don't regret any of it for a single second but I wasn't done growing when I joined him. And it's difficult dealing with the things that you see when you can barely deal with the things you feel normally. It would cruel and unethical to take you with us. I'm sorry, I really am, but that's my final answer on the matter."

"But I need to come with you," Tommy protested. "What if Mum takes Dad back? He hits me, Zoe. He hits her too and she tries to stop him from hurting me but he does it anyway. I'm scared at home. Please –"

She rose in one swift motion and took him back into her arms, his face pressing into her shoulder, her hand on the back of his head as she gently hushed him.

"It's okay," Zoe promised, eyes tracking Mr Connolly as he left his home with a suitcase in one hand, a hat on his head, and a lost expression on his face. "He's not going to hurt you again, I promise."

And if Tommy ever figured out that the last time he saw his father coincided with Zoe slipping out of his life on the day of the coronation – but not before taking a small detour to have a conversation with Mr Connolly about what was best for his son – he never mentioned it to anyone.

---

Jack exhaled slowly and let the sound of Mickey's voice wash over him, soothing the sore edges of his head. The decontamination shower had helped strip away the layer of filth and sweat that clung to him, a medicinal smell that made Mickey's nose twitch significantly better than rotting waste, and the cup of tea and sandwich that was waiting for him in his bedroom chased away the last remnants of the Wire's energy. However his head throbbed painfully, the headache making his stomach churn with nausea, and he breathed in deeply through his nose and held his breath, counting down from ten before releasing it. As Mickey spoke, he repeated the process on a loop.

"...darkness, that's all," Mickey told him, recounting his time inside the Wire as he sorted through the laundry that had been piling up: Normally Jack kept on top of it but his sleep had grown more fractured lately, nightmares creeping through the temporary bond the Doctor had placed on him and he hadn't found the energy. "Zo told me about when she didn't exist once – after she went home after Mondas – an' she said it was like floatin' through nothin'. Like, she knew she was alive but also not. That's kind of what it felt like for me."

Jack frowned, one arm slung across his eyes. "Wait – what? When did she not exist? I thought she told us everything that happened in the four years she spent away. What happened?"

"No, she told me about it after Mondas," Mickey corrected. "It happened long before they met you, I think. Even before Tolandra."

"She was a baby then," he murmured with a smile. "How'd she end up not existing?"

"Cliff notes version is Rose saved her dad an' accidentally created a paradox that wiped Zo out of existence," Mickey replied, sniffing a T-shirt before deciding to throw it in with the rest. "Pete then sacrificed himself so that everythin' went back to normal. They didn't tell you this?"

"Do I look like the sort of person who knows this information?"

"You look like the sort of person who's in pain," Mickey said, annoyance creeping into him as he stepped closer to the bed and studied Jack's face. "You're really white."

"Just a headache," Jack said, eyes closing to avoid the look on his face: The disappointed, pained look that came from him being shut out of something. "It's nothing. Only keep the lights low, will you? It'll pass."

Silently setting the laundry basket down on the end of the bed, Mickey padded into the bathroom where Jack heard a cabinet opening and closing. A painful throb sent a fresh wave of nausea through him before Mickey returned, peeling a small, circular patch off a strip of pain relief. Warm fingers pressed it against his temple and relief trickled through him, dulling the stabbing pains and letting him breathe easier.

"How's that?"

Slowly, Jack lowered his arm and blinked. "Better. Still there but it doesn't feel like a knife digging in any more."

"Could've avoided any pain if you'd just told me when we got home," Mickey told him, setting the strip down on his bedside table, hand touching Jack's forehead that was hot to the touch. "I don't like findin' out you've been sufferin' when you don't have to."

Jack reached up and caught his hand, drawing to his mouth to kiss the knuckles lightly. "Sorry, love. I didn't want to worry you."

"An' how's that goin' for you?"

"You're still here, so pretty well, I think." He gave a small tug of his hand. "Leave the laundry for the morning. Come and lie with me for a bit."

Mickey huffed, his annoyance ebbing in the face of Jack's unrelenting softness, and required no persuasion to toe off his slippers and join him beneath the covers. The laundry needed to be done at some point – they were both running out of boxers and Mickey thought dying was preferable to asking the Doctor if he had any spare – but lying next to Jack always took priority. Shifting until he was comfortable, he lifted his arm and Jack seized the opportunity to turn into his side and mould his body against Mickey's, head coming to a heavy rest on his shoulder.

"You smell nice," Jack murmured, eyes closed as he breathed him in. "Like home."

"You smell like a hospital," Mickey replied.

A laugh rumbled through Jack's chest. "Decontamination showers are great but the smell does linger. You'll have to scrub me down in the bath tomorrow if you don't want to be smelling this all the time."

"If you want me to wash your back, you just have to ask," he said, amused. "Don't need to go crawlin' around in rubbish to get me to do it."

"I fell into rubbish," Jack corrected. "And I didn't even fall, not really. I more flew a long distance and made a fortunate landing in the foulest bin in London. I suppose I should be grateful there wasn't any residential waste in there. The bins on the estate are awful. Did you know people throw out dirty nappies without sealing them away?"

"I did know that."

"The refuse collectors of your time aren't paid nearly enough." Jack slipped his hand up the front of Mickey's shirt to rest his fingers on his stomach. "Should ask Harriet to do something about that."

"It's privatised," Mickey told him. "Harriet couldn't raise their salaries even if she wanted to."

"What d'you mean it's privatised? It's waste."

"Local councils contract the work out," he explained. "They go to private companies who set the salaries. No one actually works for the government, at least not the bin men."

"That's rubbish," Jack complained. "No pun intended there. That was an accident. But why's it like that?"

"Don't know," Mickey said, fingers gently stroking through Jack's damp, curling hair. "Just is. You could talk to Harriet anyway. From what Rose was saying, she's pushin' through a lot of workers' reforms right now."

"Don't you mean Zoe?"

"Nah, Rose read it online," he replied. "She's downloaded this app thing and set Harriet's name as an alert so she gets all the news that way. I think she did it to freak Zoe out when she knows somethin' first."

"That sounds more like her." A small grunt pushed from his mouth as an unexpected spasm of pain gripped his upper thigh, the muscles rippling beneath his skin. "Shit."

"More pain?"

"Yeah," he said, pressing his forehead into Mickey's shoulder. "Getting energy punched hurts."

"Course it does," Mickey said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head, holding him through the pain. "Listen, I love her an' I'd kill for her but you can let Zoe get energy punched next time. I'd be okay with that."

The spasm faded and Jack laughed. "You're awful. That's the worst thing you've ever said. I'm not going to let anyone get energy punched. Especially Zoe. Can you imagine what the Doctor would be like afterwards?"

"Grumpy an' snappish," he said. "An' what d'you mean imagine? Zo stubs her toe on a chair an' he's about ready to set it on fire."

Jack pressed his fingers against Mickey's stomach. "I'd like to point out the irony of you talking about the Doctor being overprotective when I can't have a headache without it being a whole thing."

"You were kidnapped recently," he argued. "An' I'm not datin' Zoe, I'm datin' you. That means I get to make fun of the Doctor for doin' exactly what I'm doin'."

"Hypocrite."

"Guilty." He closed his eyes and breathed in, content with the knowledge that everyone he cared about was safe and accounted for. "D'you want somethin' else to eat? I can go to the kitchen an' get you somethin'? There's still some of Zoe's lemon cake left if you want that."

"I'm good, thank you," Jack said, yawning. "That sandwich you made me hit the spot. You make really nice sandwiches."

"It's bread an' fillin', it's not hard."

"My mother couldn't make them," he said, surprising both of them as Jack rarely spoke about Tabitha Thane. "She was a good cook but whenever she made a sandwich they were either too wet or too dry or they fell apart when you picked them up. We used to joke about it, and Dad would do this thing when he'd try to teach her how to make one." The nostalgia washed over him. "It was fun."

"Sounds it," Mickey said, stepping through the fields of Jack's complicated feelings towards his mother with care. "It's good you've got memories like that."

He sighed. "Yeah. Feels like she's dead though. Whenever I think of her, it feels like she died when the Howlers came. I don't think she is. I never checked after I left but it's easier, I suppose, to lump her in with Dad and Gray."

Mickey brushed his fingers down his shoulder. "We could check. Or I could if you didn't want to see her. You could no."

"No." Jack had considered it before: When he first started getting comfortable onboard the TARDIS, he thought about asking to go back to the Boeshane Peninsula before deciding against it, not ready to find out the truth. "Maybe one day. Never say never and everything but things are good right now. Going back to her – it's just going to be painful and I don't want to do that."

"Okay," Mickey accepted. "But you know I'll come with you if you decide to go back, right? You won't have to do it alone."

"I know," he breathed into his shoulder, curling himself closer. "Besides, it's not like I need her in my life. I've got Jackie now, I suppose. In a way. She's only six years older than I am though so I'm not sure that works."

"Seven."

"What?"

"She's seven years older, isn't she?" Mickey asked. "She's forty, you're thirty-three."

"Thirty-four," Jack said.

"When the hell did that happen?" He asked, mind whirring through the mental arithmetic quickly, certain he hadn't missed his birthday. "Your birthday's in October, which is months away."

"Well, October 30th by the Gregorian calendar," Jack said. "May 14th by the TARDIS one. I think you might be calculating it by Earth time."

Mickey blinked. "Son of a bitch. I missed your birthday. When did it happen?"

"When I was in Stormcage," he said with an apology coating his words. "Not the best way to spend a birthday, I'll admit, but it wasn't as bad as my twelfth. I was still in the hospital recovering from the Howlers when that one came around."

"You never told me I missed it," Mickey complained. "Were you goin' to?"

"There's kind of a lot that's been going on recently and the chance never came up," Jack pointed out. "And it's fine. I don't really celebrate my birthday anyway."

"We had a whole thing for Jackie's an' we made a fuss of Zoe," he said, ignoring him. "An' we had that beach party for Rose in Jamaica when she turned twenty. We celebrate birthdays here."

"Micks –"

"An' don't think I don't know about the birthday present you've got hidden away for me even though mine's not for another five months."

Jack propped himself up on his elbow, betrayed. "You never go into the wardrobe! I put it in there because it's the one piece of furniture you don't use."

He shrugged. "I needed a sweater an' yours are nicer."

"Did you look at it?"

"Maybe."

"Mickey!" Jack flopped back down next to him, hands folded across his stomach. "That was supposed to be a surprise."

"I'll be surprised, I promise," Mickey said, poking him in the side. "An' don't change the subject. You didn't tell me your birthday had gone by. You're thirty-four. We should've done somethin' for it."

Jack turned his head on the pillow to look at him. "You're not going to let it go, are you?"

"What d'you think?"

"After Dad and Gray died, Mum just forgot about my birthday," he explained. "She forgot about a lot, to be honest. My grandparents used to take me out for lunch or something similar but they died when I was seventeen when the orbital platform lost its orbit so that was that. Birthdays are..." he sighed, reaching for Mickey's hand. "I like celebrating other people's birthday but I don't like doing my own. Feels weird."

"Do you want to do somethin' just us?" Mickey asked, turning on his side, their faces close on their pillows. "We could go away somewhere for a weekend break or somethin'. Don't have to tell anyone."

A smile curled on Jack's mouth. "Missing Jamaica already?"

"It was definitely quieter there," he said. "Less dangerous too."

"Time alone with you?" Jack asked, tracing Mickey's mouth with the tips of his fingers. "I'd be an idiot to turn that down. We could go to that French resort of Zoe's where she met her lover."

"Please don't call him that."

Jack laughed. "Sorry."

"No, you're not."

"You're right, I'm not," he said with a grin. "Or we could take a break to Scotland. In the 42nd century, all of Scotland is a National Park: They don't allow any form of transport in there so we'd have to go old-fashioned with horses. Well, I say horses but they're actually extinct by that time. They use equuscamelus instead."

"Equus-what-now?"

"Equuscamelus," Jack repeated. "A camel-horse hybrid."

"Sounds...interestin'." His thumb rubbed at the skin visible between Jack's T-shirt and his boxers. "But you're goin' to have to let the others know about your birthday at some point. It won't take long for one of them to realise we haven't celebrated it an' it'll be a whole thing if you're not careful."

"For someone who hates a fuss and organising parties, Zoe is a little insufferable about people celebrating what they ought to," Jack agreed before sighing heavily. "Fine, I'll tell them. But I'm counting on you to stop them going overboard."

"Cake and presents, I'll be able to stop them at that," he promised.

"I do like cake," Jack said. "What about sexual favours?"

"Ask the Doctor nicely enough an' maybe he'll say yes."

"My past experience of being continuously rejected by him says that's unlikely," he replied, hooking a leg over his, sliding his hand down. "And I meant with you. In one of Jackie's magazines there was an article about birthday sex. How exactly does that differ from normal sex?"

"I'm not buyin' that you've never had sex on your birthday before," Mickey said, eyes closing and a rush of breath leaving him as Jack's hand slipped beneath the line of his sleep pants and cupped him. "You're tired."

"Am not," he replied, a yawn betraying him. "I'm wide awake."

Reluctantly, Mickey pulled Jack's hand out of his pants and brought it to his chest. "You're an idiot. I'm in love with a bloody idiot."

"That's not new informa – hey!" Jack found himself pinned to the bed, Mickey's heavy, familiar weight on top of him and he grinned. "Look at that. My birthday wish came true."

"Idiot," Mickey muttered, aggressively tucking him in through his laughter. "You're so goddamned stupid, I love it."

---

The world span before the solid form of her bedroom wall was at her back, the Doctor pressed along her front as he kissed her, fingers biting into her skin as he dragged her hips closer to his. The remnants of her outfit littered the ground – never to be worn again unless she found an excellent seamstress – and her shoes had been discarded the second she entered the TARDIS, the red heels cluttering up the ramp. Every part of her was on fire, the Doctor's coarse stubble scraping against the side of her throat as he kissed where her blood thrummed the hardest. Pressing into him, she raked her fingers through his hair and pushed off from the wall, sending him stumbling back to the bed. He looked up at her, dishevelled and undeniably aroused, and she grinned.

"Look at you," she said.

"Zoe."

He reached for her with swollen lips and dark eyes melted into pools flecked with gold and she went to him, climbing on top of him and kissing him. A shiver ran through her when he sat up, one hand on her jaw, the other lifting her higher up his lap, and kissing her with a hard, urgent possessiveness that throbbed through her. Dizziness crashed over her: How much he wanted her sent her lightheaded with desire and she fell into him, hands scrambling to pull his shirt off, his tie discarded somewhere between the console room and their bedroom.

"Fuck," the Doctor growled into her mouth, her nails catching on his nipples. With a roll of his hips, he dislodged her and spread her out on the bed beneath him, body bracketed between his arms. "I need more hands. Why don't I have enough hands?"

"Poor –" a gasp ripped through her when he pressed his knee between her legs and she rocked against him, a low wave of pleasure rolling through her. " – evolutionary design."

"The Faloosians have twelve arms on each side of their body but don't have sex," the Doctor told her, dragging his lips over her chest, breath warm against her skin as one hand cupped her breast, thumb rubbing against her nipple. "Can you imagine that? What a waste of extra hands."

Her mind blurred and slowed when the hot warmth of his mouth replaced his hand at her breast, her hips arching into his only for his free hand to press them back, holding her down, a whine building in her throat.

"What – what do they need all those arms for?" She swallowed against the dryness of her mouth, struggling to focus when his tongue was – "Doctor!"

"I don't actually know," he said, lightly nipping at her skin. "I wasn't paying attention at the time."

A trembling laugh rolled out of her. "That doesn't surprise me."

"Hush, you."

He pushed back up and kissed her, hand ghosting over her skin that was flushed with arousal to settle between her legs. Her entire body simultaneously twisted away from him and pressed closer, his fingers sliding into her; he caught her sigh with his mouth, thumb rubbing lazily at her clit, knowing that she would soon lose patience with the slow pace of her pleasure and demand more. He felt her hand move over her shoulders and into his hair, pulling him harder against her.

"Don't tease," she groaned.

"You like my teasing," he said, kissing beneath her ear, pressing harder against her clit to watch her face twitch with pleasure. "You saved the world today."

A breathless laugh warmed his mouth. "And Jack the day before and Rose'll save it tomorrow and then Mickey. You give them all this treatment?"

"This is just for you." He sank his teeth into her shoulder, nose pressed into her neck, and rubbed harder against her with his thumb. "I knew you had it under control. The Wire took me into the ether and I wasn't worried for a second. Not with you out there handling it all."

"Your – oh!" Her fingers tightened in his hair when he curled his fingers inside of her. "Do that again." Smiling against her skin, he did. "Your faith in me is lovely."

"Not faith if it's proven." Lifting his head, he met her eyes and pressed harder against her clit, watching as her orgasm hit her, her body wired from the whispered promises he had made to her on their way back to the TARDIS. Her spine curved from the bed and her mouth fell open in a long, low moan that he tasted with his mouth. "That's it. Rassilon, you're gorgeous like this. I'd keep you here all the time if you'd let me."

Eyes glasses from pleasure and cheeks flushed, she clumsily ran a hand through his hair and touched her fingers to his lips as he slipped his fingers from her.

"You love me," Zoe murmured, smile curling at the corner of her mouth. "Silly man."

Wiping his hand on the covers by her thigh, he pushed himself up so that he was hovering over her rather than pressed against her front, her legs making space for him. Dipping his head, he brushed a kiss over her cheeks and the tip of her nose. "Of course I love you. How could I not?"

Hand pressed against his chest, Zoe pushed him off her and swung her leg over his lap, his hands resting on her waist. Her fingers trailed down his neck, pressing into the soft hollow of his throat, before reaching between them and taking a firm hold of his cock. The Doctor groaned, head falling forwards until it met her shoulder, grip turning bruising as she slid down onto him in one smooth, slick slide that she felt all the way up her spine.

"I love you too," she told him, voice strained. "So much."

"Zo –"

She rolled her hips and the whites of his eyes flashed. "Seeing you today without your face – this face –" she touched her fingertips to his cheeks. "It was agony."

"I'm sorry," he breathed against her shoulder, shifting so as to get a better angle, thrusting up into her. "I did try to fight it."

"I know." She curled her hand around the back of his neck, colour spreading down her chest. "You always do."

Rocking against him, she enjoyed the small bursts of lighting up her spine as her sensitivity died down, aware that he was holding himself back, letting her take what she wanted from him. Lips pressed against the top of his head, she shifted and pulled herself up only to sink back down, drawing a low groan from him. Setting a rhythm, she kept one hand in his hair, his face buried in her neck, and the other on his back over where his hearts were, imagining she could feel the rapid, thundering beats of them.

His hand slid down her hip, angling her just slightly, and her fingers tightened in his hair as sharper pleasure sparked through her. The brush of his mouth across her skin had her falling into their movements, the world disappearing around her, and all she wanted was to stretch the moment out for as long as she could. Pulling his head back, his eyes liquid pools of arousal, she kissed him, slowing her pace until he twitched beneath her.

"Zo –" his murmur washed across her lips. "Don't stop."

"Tell me what you want," Zoe said, wanting him to have everything but able only to give him this.

His throat moved as he swallowed. "Faster."

Kissing him again, she pushed lightly on his shoulders until he lay back on the bed, hands on her hips. Dropping one leg to the ground, she braced herself against the floor and did as he wanted, watching his face as she moved faster and harder, rougher than they normally were with each other. His orgasm hit him and his face twisted, mouth popping open and fingers cutting into her, the small edges of pain pushing her closer towards her own pleasure. Chasing her second orgasm, she continued moving, hips rolling and drawing the aftershocks out of him.

His hand fumbled where there were joined, fingers finding her swollen clit, and he pressed against it. With two deft, swirling rubs, she came with a shit and fuck tumbling from her lips before collapsing on top of him, breathing heavily and skin glazed with sweat.

The Doctor turned his head and captured her mouth, kissing her with a lazy clumsiness that helped her heart rate slow. She felt him soften inside of her and shifted off him, mourning the loss of him before tapping his side. With a groan and feet planted on the floor, he pushed himself up the bed until his head rested on his pillow and he was able to watch her pull herself from their bed and pad into the bathroom. Rubbing a hand over his face, mind muggy as it always was in the aftermath of sex with Zoe, he blinked up at their starlit ceiling and only came back to himself when a cool, wet cloth wiped away the remnants of their coupling.

"Hey, you," he said.

Zoe's eyes crinkled when she smiled. "You're adorably daft after sex. It's like you fuck all your brainpower out."

"It feels like it," the Doctor said, watching as she aimed the cloth through the bathroom door, her elbow pulling back in celebration when it landed in the tub. He ran a finger up her spine, fingers splaying across the back of her neck. "Come to bed. I'm cold."

She huffed a small laugh even as she lay down next to him, dragging their comforter up over their bodies, curling into him. "One of the benefits of dating a human then: In-built heating."

"You are like a hot water bottle sometimes," he said, closing his eyes and holding her close. "But I like it."

"Good," she said, curling her fingers against his chest to feel his hearts beating, smothering a yawn against his side. "Wake me up in a couple of hours. I'm hungry but want to sleep first."

The Doctor hummed his agreement, eyes drooping at the same time hers did, hopeful for a proper rest after the troubled sleep he had been experiencing since Ryga's visit. Zoe's breath stuttered against his chest before it smoothed into the deep lull of sleep and he let the sound of it pull him under.

---

Rose moved along the hallway with a bounce in her step, the triumph of another disaster averted filling her with lightness, and she hummed to herself as she rubbed the excess water from her hair. The new shampoo Zoe had tossed at her head that morning when she complained about running out of her normal bottle, having forgotten to pick some up the last time she was in 21st century London, made her smell like the ocean on Drana. Pulling the towel away, small pieces of seaweed remained attached to the material even though the bottle promised that it would dissolve once exposed to air. Draping it over her shoulder, Rose swung herself into the kitchen.

"I hope the kettle's boiled, I'm gaggin' for a – oh."

Surprise and disappointment settled in her chest at the sight of the empty kitchen. Having expected the others to be sat around the table filling their stomachs with food after a long night and to begin their traditional post-adventure analysis of what had happened, the silence that lingered in the kitchen was unnerving. A bread board was littered with crumbs from where someone had made a sandwich, the only sign that someone had used it since the previous morning when they had eaten breakfast – Jack's famous pancakes were delicious despite being the healthiest thing Rose had ever put into her mouth. The happiness dripped from her bit by bit until she felt heavy, her hand tight on the doorframe.

Her throat tightened at the realisation that they had disappeared into the TARDIS to spend time with each other – Zoe and the Doctor, Mickey and Jack – and had forgotten about her.

"Right," Rose said, breathing through the disappointment and taking a step into the kitchen only for her foot to get caught on something. Looking down, her eyes shuttered with exasperation and jealousy: The Doctor's tie was underfoot and it didn't take a genius to understand way. With a pinched expression, she bent down and picked it up, throwing it onto the table. "Course they're havin' a shag."

Opening the cupboards angrily, she pulled out the jar contained the teabags and tossed it into a cup, flicking the switch on the kettle more aggressively than she was wont to do. It wasn't that she resented her friends for taking time with each other – she was working hard at being understanding and flexible when it came to their relationships – it was more that they had interrupted a post-adventure tradition she looked forward to. Having them all around the table as they laughed and caught each other up on whatever it was that they missed when they went off in different directions went a long way to resetting her nerves and chasing the fear away, helping her sleep more fully during the night.

Since Jack and Mickey had come back from Jack's recovery holiday and the Doctor and Zoe had stopped feeling guilty over concealing their relationship, their tea and gossip sessions had fallen by the wayside, a new normal shrouding the TARDIS.

She hated it.

She missed spending time with them without feeling that she was intruding on their personal time, resenting them for not wanting to involve her in things as much as they once had. She knew that it was down to the newness of their relationships – though Jack and Mickey were far better at making sure she wasn't left out than Zoe and the Doctor were, the two of them often disappearing into their own world if allowed too – but she wanted things to be how they were before. She missed how easy everything had been then and how she didn't feel like a fifth wheel in a ship full of couples.

The kettle hissed, steam billowing from the top, and she poured the hot water into her mug as she struggled to get her anger and hurt under control. In the back of her mind, the TARDIS gave her a small, gentle nudge: Comfort washed over her, alleviating some of the worst sharpness of her feelings, her muscles relaxing. At least she wasn't entirely alone. While the TARDIS wasn't able to have a conversation in the traditional sense, she was good company, especially when Rose felt sad and alone.

"Thanks, sweets," Rose said, patting the counter. "I s'pose you're used to this, aren't you? Got any tips for me?"

The fridge door popped open and the internal lights dimmed except for one that shone directly onto Zoe's lemon cake.

Rose laughed. "Cake. Y'know, that's not a bad idea. Thanks."

Taking the Doctor's half-eaten sandwich that was threatening to develop mould and throwing it in the bin – he could complain about it all he wanted but they had a strict no mould policy for the kitchen in the bin – and re-shelving Jack's weird tofu thing that tasted like burnt rubber but was, apparently, a delicacy, she took out Zoe's cake. The lemons in Zoe's garden had grown heavy and beautiful in recent days and she was testing them out to see if they worked as well as normal, non-TARDIS-grown lemons. Mickey, who ate everything put in front of him with equal relish, had declared her best yet and even Jack who had a more discerning palate was impressed.

Cutting a large piece out of it, she sat at the table with her cake and tea and pulled her phone from her pocket to call her mother rather than eat in silence and grow more resentful of her friends' absence.

"Hello, sweetheart." Jackie sounded slightly out of breath as though she had been running. "Everythin' all right?"

"Yeah, fine," Rose lied, cutting into the cake with the side of her fork. "Am I interruptin' somethin'?"

"Course not."

"It's just you sound like you're runnin'," she said, although the only time she remembered her mother running was on Mondas away from the Cybermen. "God, you haven't taken up joggin', have you? It's bad enough Zoe's mad about the gym."

Jackie laughed, keys rattling in her hands. "Don't be daft. Just got up the stairs, that's all. Ran out of bleedin' milk an' had to pop out to the offie."

"Why didn't you use the lift?"

"Keep forgettin' it's fixed," she confessed, shutting the flat door behind her and there was a rustle of clothing as she shed her coat and made her way to the kitchen. "Go on then, love. Tell me what you've been up to today. Anythin' weird?"

"Only a little," Rose said, lemon bursting across her tongue, eyes watering from the sharp citrus taste. "We went to 1953 for the queen's coronation. We were supposed to be seein' Elvis in New York, 1953, but you know what the TARDIS is like. Took us on an adventure instead."

"Sounds like fun," Jackie said with only a hint of sarcasm. "Any aliens?"

"Just the one," she replied. "It was this thing called the Wire an' it was inside the TVs. It wanted to eat people's faces to get energy so it could escape its prison."

There was a beat of silence. "Eat people's faces?"

"Somethin' like that." She cut a bigger piece off with her fork and shoved it into her mouth, no one around to judge her for her eating habits. "I wasn't payin' that much attention when Jack was explainin' it. Me, Mickey, an' the Doctor kind of had our faces eaten –"

"Jesus Christ."

"An' it was up to Zoe an' Jack to fix things, which they did." Swallowing, she washed her mouthful down with a deep drink of tea, tongue tingling from the excessively lemon taste, unsure if Zoe had put too much lemon in or the lemons from her gardens were simply more potent than normal ones. "We're back in the TARDIS now, don't know where we're goin' next though."

"The things that man drags you into," Jackie sighed, and Rose grinned. Months ago, she would have said those words with sharp anger, resentment over the danger the Doctor had placed them in, but now they came out almost fond. "Where's your sister?"

"Off with the Doctor," Rose said, unwilling to vocalise what they were actually doing especially to Jackie who was still not thrilled about her youngest daughter's new relationship. "Think she needed a sit down. She was wearin' these stupid heels today. She looked good but she had to run an' now her feet are all sore."

"Our Zoe wearin' heels?" Jackie sounded amused. "Did you take a picture?"

"No, you'd have had a bloody heart attack if I showed you want she was dressed like," she huffed around another mouthful of cake. "Doctor probably did though."

Jackie clucked her tongue. "Pervert."

"How are you?" Rose blinked to clear the fog from her eyes, clearly more tired than she thought she was. "Everythin' all right?"

"Oh, same old, same old," she replied. "Saw David for coffee the other day. Y'know, David Llewellyn? He's all upset about his divorce but he had his little girl with his this time. She's a sweet little thing. Reminded me of you a little."

Rose rubbed her nose, a numbness spreading down from the tip. "Yeah?"

"Loud an' charmin'."

"Think that's the first time you've called me charmin' in a long time."

"You grew out of it."

Rose laughed and shook her head from side to side, attempting to dislodge the strange sensation wrapping around her forehead. "Is somethin' happenin' there? With David, I mean?"

"No," Jackie said, quickly. "He's just lonely, that's all."

"Nice of you to spend time with him," she said, setting down her fork and rubbing her eyes, black spots dancing in front of them. "Is there anyone you've got your eye on right now? Should I get the Doctor to run a background check?"

"Don't you dare, young lady." The annoyance in Jackie's voice was familiar and comforting. "Last thing I need is that stretched pencil knowin' about my love life."

"Stretched pencil," Rose repeated with a soft laugh as the room tilted on its axis, and she attempted to keep hold of the conversation, hoping it would pass. "You know he cares, right?"

"I know," Jackie admitted with a sigh. "An' I care about him. I just don't want him to know that. Especially when I'm still mad at him an' Zoe."

"You're goin' to have to get over it at some point." She leaned back in her chair and panic pricked at her as her chest started to ache, her throat closing in on itself. "Mum, I –"

Across the line, Jackie paused. "Are you all right, love? You sound strange."

"Mum." Her mouth buzzed as though there were a thousand bees inside and her head turned heavy, drooping towards her chest, mind hazy. Ice ran through her at the realisation that something was wrong. "Mum. I don't feel so good."

"Rose." Jackie's concerned panic barely pierced the rush of unconscious that rose up to greet her. "Rosie! Honey, talk to –"

"Rose." Her eyes snapped open, oxygen flooding her lungs again, easing the pain in her head. "You okay, babe?"

The fog lifted from her head and Rose swayed on the spot, alarmed to find herself suddenly on her feet when she had been sitting. Mickey lunged forwards and caught her as she fell, her hand snapping out to grab hold of the safety bar that appeared in the corner of her eyes. Nose pressed into Mickey's shoulder, he smelt like he used to – cheap soap and Lynx body spray – before Jack got his hands on him and introduced him to better products. With a groan, she pushed herself away from him, a heaviness settled around her hips that unbalanced her, and she looked around, startled to find herself on the London Underground.

"What happened?" Rose demanded, breathless. "What the hell's goin' on?"

"You tell me," Mickey said, hands resting on her upper arms to help keep her upright. "You turned all funny an' nearly fell over. Have you had enough to eat today?"

"I – yes?" Rose leaned into him, seeking reassurance in his familiarity. "Where are we?"

"What?"

"Where are we?" She repeated. "How did we get here? One second I was on the TARDIS talkin' to Mum, the next I'm here with you. What happened?"

Mickey stared at her, confusion settling around his eyes and mouth. "Babe, what are you talkin' about? We're on the tube, remember? Headin' to the hospital."

"The hospital." Rose's fingers curling around the safety grip. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he said. "At least I hope not. It's just a normal check-up. It's been scheduled for weeks."

Rose shook her head, confused. "Check up for what?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten this too," he said, reaching out to touch her.

Her eyes left his face and fell down to his dark hand and lost her breath at the sigh of it curved over the large swell of her stomach. A small, noticeable kick jolted her, and Mickey laughed.

"Look at that," he grinned. "Little thing knows his dad's here."