Chapter 35: The Great Unknown

A/N- Hello everyone! Sorry for the late update! I just started school and I'm already swamped with work. Also, the endings not great because I wasn't really sure where the best place was to end so I'm sorry for that. Anyways, enjoy the chapters and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to BBC

Monsters in the Dark-MyKey

And a single step is all it takes

Over oceans, all emotions, I feel trapped under the weight

Can't keep my head above water long enough to say

That I love and miss you dearly more and more after each day

(What's in the dark?)

She couldn't believe she forgot about that day. She knew it'd been a long time but it had been such an unforgettable encounter. How could she forget? Then again, after awhile everyday was unforgettable.

She looked at Jack. He was a lot younger then she remembered him being when she saw him the first time. That meant that Jack probably wasn't going to meet the younger version of herself for awhile. It was curious though, the Jack she remembered when she was young acted like he knew her so well. Did this mean he would be with them for awhile? She wasn't sure how she felt about that yet although the Jack from when she was younger was very different from this Jack. This Jack was childish and stubborn. The Jack from when she was young was much more mature and was clearly in a leadership position. His eyes reminded Kit's of the Doctors; old and with much knowledge behind them. She wondered what that meant for Jack.

There was also something else that bugged her. The women Jack had been with. It was Gwyneth. The same girl from the time they met Charles Dickens. It explained why she thought she recognized her but how Gwyneth got to the future was beyond her. It was something she was going to have to investigate later.

"Kid, seriously, you're freaking me out," Jack snapped her out of her thoughts.

Kit shook her head. "Right, sorry, I was just thinking."

Jack raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "Mind sharing with the class?"

Kit bit her bottom lip. "Well, I was just thinking that—you know—that er—maybe… we should tell the Doctor where we are so he doesn't worry," she stuttered, not wanting to tell him why she really was lost in thought.

"You're probably right," he shrugged. "We don't want the Doctor going crazy trying to find you."

Kit sighed almost forgetting that her and the Doctor were on bad terms. "I doubt he cares."

"Why wouldn't he care about his daughter?"

There is was again, people assuming they were related. She didn't understand it, especially now.

"I'm not his daughter," she corrected him.

Jack's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really? Could have fooled me. I'm sure he still cares though."

"Maybe," she shrugged. "Can you just tell them we're safe?"

He raised his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, just give me a second." He pressed a few buttons and started pulling at some wires. "Come on, come on," he muttered then there was a sparked. "There we go! Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take everyone. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."

"Jack," the Doctors voice came through. "Where's Kit? Is she with you?"

Jack turned back to her and gave her a look that said see? I told you he cared. Kit herself was astonished that he really did still care and cared enough that her safety was the first thing he asked Jack about.

"Yeah, she's here," Jack replied with a grin. "I was able to bring on person along. She's safe."

"Good," she heard him sigh in relief. "Exactly how're you speaking to us anyways?"

"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill."

There was a pause. "Now there's a coincidence."

"What is?"

"The child can Om-Com, too," the Doctor told them.

"He can?" Rose asked.

"He must be able to," Kit piped in. "How else would he be able to call on the Tardis phone?"

"What, you mean the child can phone us?" Rose asked in horror.

Suddenly a voice rang through the ship. "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you." It was the child again.

"Please tell me you guys heard that on your end?" Kit asked as she shivered.

"Loud and clear," the Doctor muttered.

"Can you block the signal?" Kit asked Jack.

"Doing that now," he told her as he started fiddling with the controls.

"Coming to find you, mummy!"

"Please make that thing shut up," Kit grumbled. "I'm so tired on hearing its voice."

"Don't worry. I've almost got it," he replied. "Remember this one, Rose?"

A song suddenly came on. She didn't recognize it but she knew it was definitely something from this era. It was nice song though. It was a perfect song to dance to with a special someone. She figured Jack picked this song on purpose.

"Very romantic song to play while Rose and the Doctor wait," Kit commended.

"I told you, I know when I'm beat but that doesn't mean I can't help someone else out," Jack said with a shrug.

Kit grinned. "Jack Harkness has a heart, who knew?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Funny. I wonder what they're doing."

"Flirting, dancing, and maybe… actually I don't want to know," she shook her head trying to get the images out of her head.

Jack laughed. "What do you say, Little Red? Want to dance?"

"No way, Harkness. You need to focus on getting the Doctor and Rose to this ship."

Jack shrugged. "Fine but you owe me a dance then."

Kit rolled her eye. "Yeah, sure." Jack went back to work and she watched him. "Do you want help?"

"No offense, Little Red but this stuff is pretty complicated," he told her.

"Yeah well, I'm bored," she argued. She took her sonic out from her pocket. "Here, let me see."

She walked up to the captain's chair and looked at the controls. She didn't think she would be too much help if she was being honest. Usually when helping the Doctor with the Tardis he would just tell her where to fix what. Sure, she knew more than most people and was probably smart for her age but she knew this was more than that.

Weirdly though, when she looked at the controls it was almost like everything just came together in her head. Everything seemed so easy all of a sudden and it scared her. She knew exactly how to fix his ship but she knew that she shouldn't be able to. She started fiddling around with the controls without even thinking, using her sonic here and there. All it needed was a little poke here and a bit of wiring there. With the two of them working, it didn't take long at all.

"Huh?" Jack said out loud. "Look at that. Not bad, kid."

She shook her head, trying to figure out how she was able to do that. "Yeah, t—thanks."

"Nice sonic by the way. Didn't think about using that before," he mocked.

"Er, the Doctor doesn't know I have this."

"Right, so keep it on the down low?"

"Yes please." She put her sonic back in her pocket. She was going to have to ask the Doctor able her new 'ability' later.

"Alright, well I think we're all ready to go."

Jack pressed one last button. There was a small flash on light which disappeared and was replaced with the Doctor and Rose. They were standing in front of each other with Rose hands in the Doctors. They didn't seem to notice at all that they were on the ship or that they had an audience.

"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy. You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them," Rose teased the Doctor as she put the Doctor into a dance position.

Jack and Kit looked at each other with the same thought in mind: do they not realize we're here?

"If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked," the Doctor countered.

"Yeah? Shame I missed that."

They suddenly looked like they were going to kiss and Kit couldn't take it anymore. Not only that but she was clearly intruding on a private moment.

"Ew, guys, come on! No one wants to see that," Kit interrupted. Both of them jumped back and looked around in confusion. "How does someone not notice they've been teleported?"

"Also, nobody takes my frock," Jack jumped in. "But hey, you guys are sweet."

"Sickly sweet," Kit muttered under her breath which earned a grin from Jack.

"Sorry about the delay too," Jack continued. "We had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

"Wait, we?" The Doctor questioned.

"Yeah, would have taken me longer if Little Red hadn't helped."

The Doctor turned to Kit with a mix between astonishment and confusion. Kit met his eyes and then looked down at her feet nervously. He probably was having the same thought she had; how the hell did she manage that?

"Right," the Doctor muttered. "So you needed help with your own ship? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."

"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes," Jack bit out with a fake grin plastered on his face.

"This is a Chula ship," the Doctor observed.

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous," he stressed.

The Doctor suddenly snapped his fingers and a golden glow enveloped his hand. He moved his hand around and the light followed him. Kit watched in awe. She'd only seen these a couple of times.

"They're what fixed my hands up Jack called them er—"

"Nanogenes," Kit interrupted Rose without thinking. She was just so amazed by them.

"Nanogenes, yeah. Did Jack show you?"

"I don't think I—" Jack started.

"Yeah, he did," Kit finished for him and glared at him with a face that said shut up. "Anyways, what are they, Doctor?" She tried to change the subject as she watched everyone's confused face.

"Sub-atomic robots," he started slowly. "There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws," he explained as the Nanogenes swirled around his hand. He snapped his fingers and the Nenogenes disappeared. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-com back online," Jack replied in annoyance. He turned to Kit. "You want to help me with this, Red?"

Kit panicked slightly. She looked from the Doctor to Rose and back to Jack. "No, I'm good. I think you've got this," she said quickly.

Jack shrugged. "Whatever you say. You guys can make yourself comfortable. And you two," he pointed at Rose and the Doctor. "Can get back to whatever it was you were doing."

"We were talking about dancing," the Doctor replied warily.

"It didn't look like talking."

"It didn't feel like dancing," Rose cut in defensively.

Kit watched the adults in confusion and curiously. She was usually pretty good at keeping up on what was happening but this wasn't about aliens or time travel. No, this was something very different and something Kit was not knowledgeable on. Was this flirting? Was Rose flirting with the Doctor or Jack? Was the Doctor jealous of Jack or was Jack jealous of the Doctor? She was seriously confused.

"Um, guys?" Kit broke the silence. "What's happening? Why are we all quite?"

Jack grinned at her. "Don't worry about it, kid. Maybe you'll figure it out when you're older."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you know about the birds and the bees?" Jack started.

"Jack! Stop!" The Doctor interrupted in hast. "Not the time. Not the place. And you are definitely not the person."

Kit looked over to Rose for help. "What's going on?"

Rose gave her a sympathetic smile. "Maybe we'll talk about it later."

"Can we please get back to the task at hand?" The Doctor demanded.

"I don't see why we can't talk about it. We do have time on our hands," Jack shrugged.

"No." The Doctor glared. "Just get back to work."

"Fine," Jack grumbled and turned back to the controls.

Kit looked at everyone and then sighed. Nobody tells her anything anymore. There was another awkward silence that followed. Everyone seemed to be avoiding something or someone. Kit looked up at the Doctor. He seemed to be in deep thinking mode. Kit wondered what he was thinking about. Was it about Rose? Was it possibly about her?

The Doctor suddenly looked at her, probably noticing she was staring at him. He opened his mouth to say something which made Kit panic. What if it was about her helping Jack fix his ship? She really didn't want to talk about it here.

In her panic, she blurted out, "Jack! Can I ask you a question?"

Jack turned in his chair and gave her a confused looked. "Sure?"

Kit opened and closed her mouth. She really didn't have a question in mind and she was really regretting her decisions. "Um, so—er—I—conning people, that must be fun. What's that about?" If she could punch herself in that moment, she would. Everyone was giving her a weird look.

Jack raised his eyebrow. "What's that about?" He quoted.

Kit scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, you know, seems like a lot of work. Why'd you do it?"

"It's not for the money if that's what you're thinking," he answered.

"Isn't that the point of a con? The money?"

"Yeah, true but it's more than that."

"How so?" Rose added sweetly.

Jack sighed. "When I used to be a Time Agent I woke up one day, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."

This peaked Kit's interest. "Your memories are gone?"

"Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me," Jack nodded at the Doctor. Kit turned to see the Doctor look away in what looked like guilt. "And for all I know he's right not to." Kit should have figured there were more reasons for the Doctor hostilities. "Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?"

The Doctor nodded but still didn't look happy. "As quick as you can."

"Alright, hold on everybody!"

…

The night air was colder than she remembered from earlier and it made her shiver when she stepped out of the ship.

Everyone had been fairly quiet as they made their way over to the crash site. She really hoped this awkwardness wouldn't last forever. It was really starting to bother her. Although, as they got closer to the crash site, their awkwardness slowly disappeared and was replace with determination.

"There it is," Jack pointed out when they got close enough. They could see a couple of guards near the crash site and one guard only a couple of feet away from them. "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

"We've got to get past him," the Doctor muttered.

"Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?" Rose inquired.

Kit rolled her eyes. "No, they're not."

"I can handle it," Rose stressed as she glared at Kit.

"I don't doubt it but wouldn't it look a little weird for a random girl with a Union Jack shirt to be walking near the crash site?"

Rose sighed. "Maybe."

"Don't worry, Rose, I'll distract him," Jack cut in.

"For how long? We need to get to the crash site and fix whatever's going on. Can you distract the guy for that long?" Kit questioned.

Jack just laughed. "Trust me, I definitely can. After all, I am his type."

"What does that have to—" It hit Kit on what he meant. "Oh."

Jack patted Kit on the back. "Don't wait up."

He ran off towards the man. This left Kit and especially Rose in a bit of confusion. Rose looked at the Doctor with a question in her eyes.

The Doctor just grinned. "Relax, he's a fifty first century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

"How flexible?"

"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."

"Meaning?" Rose demanded.

"So many species, so little time."

Rose face showed shock and horror. "What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and—and—"

"Dance," the Doctor finished.

Kit opened and closed her mouth, not really sure what they were talking about anymore. "We're not talking about the same dancing I'm thinking of anymore, are we?"

"No, we're not," Rose replied.

"Yeah, I'm not going to ask," Kit shook her head.

They looked on at Jack and watched him talk to the guard. It seemed pretty normal at first. Jack wore a charming smile and said something they couldn't hear. After a moment though, Kit could tell something was wrong. Jack's smile dropped and the solider seemed to be acting weird. Before Kit could ask what was happening, the solider fell to his knees. He starts saying something that Kit can't hear but it didn't matter because she soon knew exactly what he was saying. He opens his mouth wide and suddenly, much like doctor Constantine, something started coming out of his mouth and then covered his face until it was a gasmask.

The Doctor took off running shouting, "Stay back!" As Rose and Kit followed.

Jack took a step back and looked at the man with wide eyes. Other soldiers started to gather around but he shooed them away. "You men, stay away!"

The men left cautiously as the Doctor, Rose and Kit finally came to stand beside Jack. Rose had the same look as Jack but the Doctor and Kit were well aware of what happened.

"The effect's become air-borne, accelerating," the Doctor explained.

All of a sudden, the sound of sirens went off and Kit gulped knowing what that meant.

"Alright, so it's air-borne," Kit said, thinking. "Is there anyway we can stay safe from it?"

"No." The Doctor said simply.

"Oh, comforting. Good to know."

They started to hear planes flying by them now. Kit was starting to feel anxious and by the look on Rose face, she was too.

"Ah, here they come again," Jack announced as they watched the planes fly above them.

Rose gulped. "All we need. Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"

"Never mind about that," the Doctor interjected. "If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."

"What happens when times up?" Kit asked cautiously.

"Nothing, forever. For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?" The Doctor asked all of a sudden.

Everyone listen carefully. Low and behold, there was singing. It wasn't very good and a bit rushed. It was coming from the barn and before anyone could say anything, the Doctor took off towards it. They followed after him.

When the Doctor came to the barn, he pressed his ear against the door and listened carefully. He opened the door slowly. When the door was open they saw Nancy sitting at a chair with a solider that had a gasmask on his face. He was sleeping with his head rested on the table. Nancy gave them a panicked look and showed them that she was handcuffed to the table.

Nancy kept singing as they slipped into the barn. The Doctor took out his sonic and used it on the handcuffs. They fell off and Nancy stood up quickly and they all exited the barn as fast as they could.

When they were outside, Nancy sighed in relief. "Thank you." She looked between the four of them. "You're going back to the crash site, aren't you?"

"Yes," the Doctor simply said.

She nodded. "I'm coming with you."

"You don't have to."

Nancy pressed her lips together. "No, I have to see for myself."

"Then let's go." The Doctor looked up at the sky where they could hear the planes. "Because we don't have a lot of time."