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Chapter 6 -Throwing Knives

Pete woke up and rose up on the sofa. He looked around the dim room and spotted the Doctor sitting at the table behind him. He was working on something and had his sonic screwdriver out.

"Turn on a light, so you can see whatever you are working on." Pete fussed at him. Then Pete stood up and grabbed his head and groaned.

The Doctor stopped his screwdriver and looked back at Pete. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

Pete rubbed his face and walked over to see what the Doctor was working on. Pete sat down at the table with him. It was littered with complex drawings and tiny of metal pieces of something. The Doctor was wearing his glasses and was looking intently at a tiny piece of some machine.

"Go on to bed, Pete. It's still late. You need to rest. I didn't mean to wake you up. Sorry about that." The Doctor told him.

Pete shook his head. "No, it's fine."

The Doctor looked over and him and smiled. "How's your head?"

Pete looked at the Doctor seriously, "I should have known better. How many did we even have?"

The Doctor chuckled and shook his head. "I honestly couldn't tell you. Come here and let me do my little trick. It will help."

Pete leaned closer to the Doctor as he put his hands on the side of Pete's head. The Doctor closed his eyes and within a few moments, Pete's eyes flew open and he exclaimed, "Ah!"

The Doctor took his hands from Pete's head and smiled at him. "That is a brilliant trick! One I wish I thought of years ago!"

Pete rubbed his head, "What are you doing?"

The Doctor looked at the piece he had been inspecting. "Just an idea I have. I took your old watch apart. It was destroyed in the explosion. I'm making you another one tonight. Now, that you are back to yourself, you'll need one."

Pete smiled. "Thank you. For everything. I don't say it enough."

The Doctor shook his head. "You don't have to say anything."

Pete looked at him, "No, I do. I could have died there. I feel like had it not been for you, my entire family wouldn't exist. You have saved all of us, probably more times that you would ever even tell us. Not to mention how happy you have made my Rose."

The Doctor smiled, "I love you that call her that. Like my Genie. I know she's another man's child, but she's mine. She has my heart."

Pete smiled, "Yes. Same with Rose. She needed a father as much as I found I needed her. Strange thing."

The Doctor went back to his work. "Rose said that Harriet pushed through the adoption. I have to sign one thing when we get home, and Genie is officially your granddaughter."

He stopped and looked up at Pete's face. "Congratulations, Pete. It's a girl!"

Pete laughed, "We should buy some cigars from here and take them home."

"Or pipe tobacco. I like that more." the Doctor told him as he worked on the tiny part.

"You smoke a pipe?" Pete asked.

"Used to. A long time ago. Man, I haven't thought of that in years. Now I want it. Damn!" the Doctor said. "Rose probably wouldn't like that at all."

Pete laughed at him. "Of course. 900 year old man, smoking a pipe. I can see that. How long has it been?"

The Doctor looked at Pete seriously. "Hmmm…. If I told you a lot longer than 900 years, would you believe me?"

Pete threw his hands up. "I'm going to bed. Explain that to me later."

The Doctor chuckled, "At your limit, huh?"

Pete shook his head and laughed, "Close to it. Wow. My son-in-law is one amazing guy. I don't think we've ever had a conversation that I didn't walk away from in shock."

The Doctor smiled, "Okay. Normal conversation. Summus returned with his own, personal ship. We will leave tomorrow afternoon and be home by the next day. The girls will be in Greece, so we'll transport right down. Normal enough?"

Pete laughed, "As normal as I can expect from you, I imagine. Gosh! Did you tell Rose?"

The Doctor shook his head. "She's still sleeping. I don't want to disturb her. She was so upset tonight when I talked to her. I think I might keep this quiet in case something else might come up. I don't want to disappoint her again."

Pete pointed at him, "That is a normal conversation, son."

The Doctor laughed. "Son." He mocked. "Go to sleep, young man. You have brain scans in the morning."

Pete shook his head. "See, that is not a normal conversation."

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Shakes came back into the room he was sharing with Pete and the Doctor. The Doctor was still sitting at the table, working on the watch for Pete.

Shakes looked down at it and asked, "New watch?"

The Doctor grimaced. "Yeah. What is wrong with this screwdriver?" His sonic screwdriver had stopped working and was making a strange noise. He groaned and sat it down.

He stood up and started to take things out of his pockets. He pulled out bags from the shopping that Pete and him had done that evening. He walked over and put everything on the sofa. He filled up the sofa quickly and started putting bags of shopping the floor. Then he walked back over to the table and pulled out a small box. He looked at it quickly and then remembered what it was. It was the Japanese throwing knives he had been sent a few days ago. He sat the box on the table and continued to pull things out of his pockets.

Shakes laughed at him in disbelief. "Wow! That's amazing! How are you doing that?"

The Doctor looked up at him as he continued to pull more things out of his pockets and put things on the table. "Physics, Summus. Doctor Rose Tyler isn't the only one with an understanding of transdimensional forces. Damn it. Where is it?"

"What are you looking for?" Summus asked as he marveled at the Doctor who was still digging in his pockets and pulling out random things. "A bag of stuff I got tonight. It has a regulator for my screwdriver in it."

He snapped as he remembered. "Oh! I'm thick! I put it in one of these bags."

He walked over to the sofa and dug around in the bags until he found the smaller bag. He took out the tiny part that he needed and walked back over to sit at the table. He unscrewed his sonic screwdriver and removed some parts inside of it.

Shakes watched him as he replaced the broken part and put his screwdriver back together. When he was done, he tested it and smiled. "Wow! I just got that tonight! Lucky."

Shakes smiled at him. "Could you make me a cargo hold, like your pockets?"

"Bigger on the inside cargo hold? Why?" the Doctor asked.

Shakes shrugged his shoulders. "You know how it is. You always need more room on a ship."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "That's very true."

Shakes rubbed his chin and watched the Doctor work.

"When we return, are you going to stay?" the Doctor asked.

Shakes nodded his head. "Of course. I have my ship again, but I trust my men to fly her if needed. My first priority is the Tyler family. I'm needed there."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, Summus. Your first priority is to your people. If you need to go and put families back together, don't think we're more important. Nothing is more important than that."

Shakes shook his head. "My men are taking care of that as we speak. That's how Lance and Legate were found. Poltoius will be amazed. He thought he had died in the attacks."

"Poltonius had a son taken away as well, right?" the Doctor asked as he continued to work on the watch.

Shakes nodded his head. "Yes. He was a young boy. Younger than this one. I was surprised when I found Legate had lived. Poltoius will be thrilled. He has no idea. I've asked the guard not to tell him."

"How does that work? John being gone and the new ones coming in?"

Shakes crossed his arms. "We will all meet together to join the unit. Then we can all telepathically communicate after that. I, as the leader, can free a mind of the unit. I asked John if he wanted me to free him, and he believes he might return. He asked to remain."

The Doctor nodded, "Interesting."

"You have been speaking to Rose? With your link?"

"Yep! She's miserable. Trying not to let me know. But, I can sense it. She's blocking her emotions, but I'm doing the same thing. This has been hard for us."

"Pete appreciates it. I know he does."

"Yeah, he would have done the same for me. I'm glad it helped him. Makes me feel like it was all worth it." He smiled at Shakes.

Shakes looked down at the box the Doctor had put on the table. "What is this? May I look?"

The Doctor nodded, "Sure! You'd probably like that. It's Japanese Throwing Knives."

"Japanese Throwing Knives?" Pete asked as he walked into the room.

The Doctor turned to him, "Are you already up?" He thought for a moment. "Wow. I lost track of time."

Pete sat down and looked at the Doctor, "Have you slept at all?"

The Doctor sat down his work and took off his glasses. He rubbed his face. "No. Got busy working on this."

Pete looked around at the mess in the sitting room. "Where did all of this come from?"

Shakes laughed, "His pockets! I bet there's even more in there."

The Doctor rested his head on his fist. "Yeah, sadly there is. I'm terrible about that. I just keep everything in there. I never toss out anything. Rose teases that I need a big box in the closet to dump stuff into. But, I'm worried I might need it."

Pete held up a remote for an RC car. "Might need this?"

The Doctor nodded his head. "That has some good parts in it!"

Pete chuckled at him as he sat it down.

Shakes was looking at the knives. "I've heard of these. Are they like the Kutrous knives?"

The Doctor shook his head, "No. Well….sortof. You have to throw them differently. Kutrous knives you throw from…well….you know how to do that, I'm sure."

The Doctor looked at the box and picked up one of the knives. "These were given to me a few days ago. Some kid that broke his leg and hip used the machine we made, Pete. It got him back into a tournament and into some school. He sent these to me as a thank you."

Pete crossed his arms in surprise. "Wow! Can you throw them?"

The Doctor looked down at the knife. "I think so. I used to be able to."

Shakes held up his finger. "Hang on. Let's see."

Shakes crossed the room and picked up the Doctor and Pete's suitcase. He pulled the zipper on the front pocket until it was in the middle of the bag.

"Okay. Toss them at the zipper. Let's see how you do." Shakes encouraged him.

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah, too easy. Hit the zipper. Make it spin around and move."

Pete looked impressed. "From this distance? That's at least, 40 meters."

The Doctor turned and got the other knives out and held them in his hands. "Okay, Summus. Go ahead."

Shakes smiled, hit the zipper with his finger and quickly stepped out of the way.

The Doctor threw each one of the knives quickly. The first knife went through the hole and stuck in the bag, trapping the zipper from moving. The next knife pinned the zipper from the left and then the third knife pinned the zipper from the right. The Doctor tossed the other knife around in his hand and turned to look at Shakes. "It just needed three. That zipper isn't going anywhere now."

Pete's mouth was open in shock.

Shakes put his hands on his hips and laughed. "Wow! I know why you where called the other thing now."

The Doctor pointed at him, "I'd rather not talk about that."

The Doctor sat back down at the table and went back to his work. Shakes pulled the knives out of the bag and brought them back. He laid them back in the box with the fourth one that the Doctor had already put away.

The Doctor looked up at Pete. "What?"

Pete shook his head, "Damn. I'm just surprised. Where you an assassin once? Jesus!"

The Doctor shook his head, "I don't talk about that. Probably shouldn't have shown you that. Granted, some of that is probably Rose now, too. She's been trained as a Torchwood agent."

Pete held out his hand, "Yeah, but they don't train them how to throw knives! I would know! She can't do that. Ask her!"

The Doctor thought for a moment. "No, she's still sleeping. I'm not going to bother her."

Pete tossed up his hands. "Damn! Wow! I know you don't like to talk about it, Doc. But, I'll ask you for this one thing."

The Doctor looked at him, "What's that, Pete?"

"Teach my Tony how to do that. And Genie. That was amazing and it could save them one day." Pete asked.

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Good idea. Plus, Tony will think it is cool. Sure, Pete. I'll do that."

Shakes crossed his arms and nodded his head in approval. "Very impressive indeed, Doctor! That's better than Lewis can throw, and he is the best I've ever seen."

The Doctor shook his head and gritted his teeth. "It's not a big deal. Just throwing a knife. Chefs do it all the time!" He smiled.

Pete tossed his hands up. "Let's go grab breakfast! It's our last day here."

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