Chapter Seventeen
The Doctor swam in a muggy haze, his consciousness sliding from deep sleep into a blurry, reluctant awakeness. His muscles, having finally had the opportunity to relax from the tension that had been held in them since his arrival at Abigail's mansion, ached fiercely; and a low, pained groan pressed out of his throat. The gentle touch of fingers on the top of his head, stroking his hair back from his face, comforted him as he was reluctantly roused by the dull pain throbbing through his body. He didn't worry about where he was as he knew he was safe since he never slept deeply when he wasn't, his body tuned to keeping him on the edge.
Turning towards the familiar smell of Jackie at his side, he breathed in deeply. The cheap shower gel she liked to use mixed in with the smell of their laundry detergent layered over the pure humanness that made her her was welcome after nearly a month apart. It made him feel at home, protected, and he twisted his body, burying himself deeper into her warmth.
He luxuriated in the fact that there was no hurry to wake up. Darrell wasn't about to slam the lights on and keep him awake for hours on end, there was no looping track of trance music that had come closest to tipping him into insanity, and there was no prospect of a fresh interrogation that day. Nothing was expected of him except to rest and let those around him fuss over her. He let loose a low, garbled sound that made Jackie's body shake lightly with laughter, her fingers gliding through his hair, steady and slow, reminding him of the comfort his mother used to give him when he was a boy.
Memories of his parents blurred with the confusion of his regenerations, his mind a small mess that he swam through in search of his internal clock: fifteen hours, it read. He had been asleep for fifteen hours, which was indulgent for him even when he took the state he was in the night before into account. He remembered arriving at the base to a bone-crushing hug from Fei, a teary one from Rita, and the relief etched on the fact of Ricky who greeted him with a strong pat on his back that nearly knocked him over.
He remembered there being cake before Jackie ushered him off to bed when he was falling asleep on his feet. There was a vague recollection of losing his battle long before his head hit the ground, and he realised that either Jackie or Fei must have undressed him in his sleep since he was beneath the heavy blankets in only his boxers.
He made another sound with his throat, tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, and the hand in his hair paused.
"D'you want somethin' to drink?" Jackie asked, quietly. "Got some water for you."
He nodded against the side of thigh where his forehead rested, and distantly heard the sounds of her setting down her book and picking up the water. Mercifully, it was in a water bottle so he didn't have to move to drink it, gulping the water greedily down, his head clearing as he drank half of it down before breathing. A pill poked at his wet lips, and it tasted chalky and unpleasant when it sat on his tongue before he forced it down his throat.
"It's not aspirin," she reassured him. "It's one of the things you had in your pockets when we came here."
That much was evident when the relief kicked in instantly, his body melting into the bed with a sigh. He finished the water and felt well enough to roll onto his back to stretch, A moan that dived into inappropriate rolled from him considering his company: his spine spine stretched and popped, toes pointed toward the door, and his neck cracked like dry twigs. Light and colour danced in front of his eyes as he stared up at the ceiling, the world humming and throbbing around him.
"Hello to you too." There was enough of amusement and relief when Jackie spoke that he turned his eyes to look up at her, reaching for her hand at the same time. "Thought you were dead for a bit. Didn't know your lot slept so much."
"We don't," the Doctor said in a voice that scraped against the inside of his throat, rusty from disuse. "I needed it."
"That you did," she agreed. "You looked like shit last night."
A smile curved on his mouth. "I've missed you."
"Oh, shut it," Jackie told him. "I'm proper angry at you. Bloody stupid idea givin' yourself up like that. You're not indestructible, you massive prat."
He rubbed his free hand over his eyes, picking the dried sleep from them. "Not my best, that's true. Needed to know what was going on though."
"Could've done that without bein' tortured," she complained, the lack of heat letting him know she had been scared for him, more scared than she perhaps wanted to admit. "Fei said whatever thing they put in you – that drug thing – it'll be out by tomorrow."
"Good," the Doctor murmured, eyes heavy. "That's good."
"You goin' back to sleep?"
He shook his head. "No. Just resting my eyes."
"Want to be alone?"
"Definitely not." His hand tightened on hers at the exact moment there was a large explosion of china breaking in the other room and a strident Welsh voice loudly telling someone off. He perked up. "Is that Angela?"
"She got here a few hours ago," Jackie explained. "Pete's been good to his word. He admitted to everythin' he's done with Abigail, an' Angela was released about seven hours ago or somethin'. She turned up with her boys earlier."
The Doctor let the good news settle on his chest. It had been a while since something had made him truly happy, and knowing that Angela was out of prison and back in the throng of him sent happiness sparking through him. Toes tingling with it, he wriggled them beneath the down blanket.
"What about Abigail?" He asked. "Has she been arrested?"
"No," Jackie sighed, bitterness flashing across her features. "By the time Pete'd squared everythin' away, Abigail an' her lot were long gone. She's on the run now. Ricky thinks it's goin' to be harder for her to do anythin' serious."
"He shouldn't underestimate her." The Doctor fought against another yawn.. "She's desperate and grieving. If she thinks her back is against a wall, she's going to lash out. We need to close the walls to the universe before she tries to rip them apart."
Her thumb brushed over his knuckles. "That's exactly what Fei said. He's about finished with that thingy you've been workin' on. He wants you to have a look over it but he said tomorrow, probably, if everything's all right."
He blinked up at her. "Really?"
"Yeah." A small, disbelieving laugh tumbled from her to him. "Doesn't feel real, does it?"
It didn't.
With long years and a pretty awful month placed on top of it, the idea that he and Jackie could be home in a day or two was something that he found it difficult to dare hope for. Thoughts of the TARDIS and her comforting presence in her mind – painfully missed in their time apart – and Jack's vibrant laughter, Mickey's easy friendship, and Rose's absolute everything: he ached for it. His fingers itched to pull Zoe into his lap, his arms wrapped around her, and his face buried in the nape of her neck as he let his family wash over him; he wanted it so fiercely that he wasn't sure how he was going to handle it if they were disappointed.
There were too many variables at play to put all of his hopes on an uncertainty, but he wanted to believe, so, for a moment, let himself believe that it was possible.
He released a long sigh and gave Jackie's hand a small squeeze when he was done. "Soon. We'll be home soon."
"Just no more gettin' yourself kidnapped between now an' then, yeah?" Jackie asked."Or I might just leave you behind."
His mouth ticked towards his eyes. "Liar."
She rolled her eyes and watched as his laugh was interrupted by another yawn, sleep sneaking up on him again: his body evidently not content with the fifteen hours was demanding a little more. He was able to push it away but, lying in his warm, soft bed, his hand tangled with Jackie's, he didn't want to.
"How're things with you?"
Jackie clucked her tongue. "Enough of that now, love. You close those eyes of yours. We're goin' to need you well-rested for the next few days. We can catch up properly later."
He nodded, sleep tugging him insistently into its depths. "Don't go?"
"I'll stay right here," she promised him, soft and soothing.
And he fell asleep to the strength of her hand in his and the warmth of her at his side: safe, loved, and hopeful.
"Do it like this."
"I am doing it like that."
"No, you're just mashing – stop touching that!"
"Doctor, I swear to god, if you don't –"
"If you weren't such an idiot, I wouldn't – ow!" The Doctor clapped a hand to his chest, stunned expression sweeping away his annoyance as he stared at his friend. "Did you just flick my nipple?"
"Damn right I did." Fei took advantage of the Doctor's surprise to finish what he had been trying to do before the Doctor ambled into the room and attempted to take over. "There, done. See how quick that was without you getting in the way?"
"I cannot believe you just flicked my nipple," the Doctor said, bewildered. "Why would you do that?"
"Stop acting all affronted," Fei ordered without sympathy. "You once locked me in a cupboard to stop me getting involved in one of your experiments. I was there for six hours."
The Doctor's eyes rolled, hand dropping back to his side. "You were fine. It was well ventilated, wasn't it? And you hadn't just been tortured, either."
"Oh, yes, let's make jokes about that," he said. "Make sure Jackie can hear you too. She'll love the reminder."
A quick glance to the open doorway assured the Doctor that Jackie was out of hearing. He caught sight of her moving back and forth, hair bundled on the top of her head, wearing what he was sure was one of Fei's shirts with a casualness that let him know he might have missed something there. Uncertain as to how to approach the topic with Jackie as the two of them only rarely spoke about their love lives – a rather uncomfortable situation for both of them since he was dating her daughter and he didn't want to think about Jackie having sex – but he felt like it was something he should check on. Jackie was one of the strongest people he knew yet was possession of a heart as soft and tender as her daughters, which left her open for pain whether she expected it or not.
"Speaking of Jackie –" he began since he had no such awkwardness with Fei. "She's wearing –"
"Check it out, would you?" Fei interrupted, pointing at the machine. The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, his friend deliberately avoiding his eyes as he fussed over their work. "Two sets of eyes are better than one, isn't that what you say?"
"I've never said that in my life," the Doctor told him. "Don't think I'm not noticing your avoidance though."
"Avoidance?" Faux confusion tilted Fei's head to one side. "I'm not familiar with that word."
"At least lie better," he requested. "It's offensive when they're rubbish."
"Noted," Fei said, ignoring him harder.
Putting whatever was happening between Fei and Jackie out of his mind, the Doctor bent over the machine to poke at it and ensure that everything was exactly how it should be: the time for mistakes was in the past. He was entrusting his and Jackie's safety to this machine, and he didn't want to end up on the wrong universe or flung into the Void to die. In ideal circumstances there would be a more rigorous testing phase that would give him confidence everything was going to work as he planned, but the pressure of a clock ticking down to zero weighed down on them. It was very much now or never.
Fortunately for them all, Fei's work was excellent as it always was. The Doctor didn't need to change much from the work done in his absence, Fei understanding the science almost as well as he did – not that he would ever admit to that – but nervousness clawed its way through him nevertheless. The desperate anxiety to get back home and into Zoe's arms was making him jumpy. While his nearly 24-hour sleep had done him the world of good, he still felt so weak; weak enough that he kept bumping into things as his body worked through the reserves of the serum it had stored up.
Ironically, after two years of dreaming of home, he wished they had more time.
"Good, this is good," the Doctor said, running his fingers over the outer shell just to feel the solidity of it and reassure himself that all was well. "And you'll be able to dismantle it without a problem?"
"I'll take a sledgehammer to it if I have to," Fei promised, leaning back and crossing one ankle over the other as he looked at him. "I'll start taking it apart it the second you're through and then take it apart on the journey back. No one'll be able to use it again, I promise."
"And the research?"
"Consider it already deleted and forgotten."
The Doctor's shoulders eased. "You're a good man, Fei."
"Don't get sentimental on me now," Fei warned, the press of emotions coating the room with a heaviness that they both felt. "We don't want to be crying over each other when it's time for you to go."
"Oh, I don't know," he said, honestly. "I think our friendship is worth a few tears."
Fei's expression softened. "So do I."
"There's an open invitation for you," the Doctor reminded him, revisiting a conversation they had had one late night in the lab with Indian food, a plethora of research, and some beers. "I know your parents are a concern and I respect that, but if you change your mind between now and when we leave...I'd love for you to come with us."
Fei's eyes dropped briefly to the floor, a small frown creasing his forehead, and guilt swept into the Doctor. It wasn't as though he was simply asking Fei to come join him in the TARDIS, returning him back home whenever he wanted, he was asking him to leave his entire universe behind and never return. He opened his mouth to apologise when Fei started to speak.
"I've thought about it a lot," he admitted, and a frisson of something rolled through the Doctor: relief, happiness, sadness, he wasn't sure. "Pretty much every day since we last spoke about it, to be honest. The thought of actually seeing the TARDIS and meeting your friends." He shook his head, regretful. "And I really want to ask Zoe why she's mad enough to fall for you because, honestly, I don't get it."
"Hey!"
"But I can't," Fei concluded. "I've gone over it a thousand different ways in my mind. I can't leave my parents. I can't do that to them."
Although it was a blow, the Doctor found it difficult to fault him for his reasoning. He remembered the ache of learning his daughter had run away from home, knew how painful it was for his son when he took off with Susan, and vividly remembered Jackie's agony and anger over Rose's absence. Leaving Gallifrey that first time was fine for him because he knew his parents would be there when he returned along with his children and other grandchildren, all of them looking after each other when he wasn't capable of it.
There had always been an option to return home, he couldn't expect Fei to turn his back on that.
"I understand," he said at last. "I am going to miss you though."
"Yeah, I'm going to miss you too," Fei replied. "Surprisingly. Because you're awful."
The Doctor tipped his head back and laughed. It was in their laughter that Angela appeared at their shoulders, a little thinner than she used to be but managing to hold herself upright as though the last month hadn't been spent in a small, locked roommate with a cellmate who had poisoned her husband for cheating on her.
Freshly released from prison with her reputation intact and character vindicated, she had rejoined the Preachers instead of returning to Torchwood. So relieved was she to see Ricky and Jake, their bodies lost in a tangled hug that the three of them took a while to resurface from, she finally admitted that she had hated running Torchwood. She missed doing science, and research and development with an ache that made it difficult to sleep at night, fingers itching to sink themselves into lines of code, and she was content not to return to the position of director that had given her more grief than happiness.
Her idea, it seemed so far, was to tinker and do everything she hadn't been able to do recently, which included spending time with her sons who had joined them in the safehouse as a form of odd family bonding.
"I think this is the longest you two have gone without bickering," Angela noted. "Is everything all right?"
"Surprisingly, yes," the Doctor replied, happy. "We're getting everything sorted here. How's the transport coming along?"
"I've dealt with it," she told him. "You won't like it though, but bear in mind that it gets us to our destination with more discretion than anything else, and I won't be tolerating any complaints."
"Now I'm intrigued."
"Good, that keeps you quiet," she said, and his grin sliced dimples into his cheeks. Angela swept her eyes over their machine before she gestured. "When do you think you can start moving this?"
The Doctor and Fei looked at each, communicating silently with waggling eyebrows and twitching noses before they nodded. Fei looked back to Angela. "Two hours."
"Good, you should get started," Angela replied. "Ricky's just told me that the observers we have near the beach have picked up an armed presence there. Abigail doesn't seem to be there yet but the way they're scouring the beach for the crack, it won't be long before they find it."
"Shit." It wasn't a surprise, not really, but it was an annoyance nonetheless, and the Doctor scrubbed his hand against the back of his neck. "I hoped she'd take a little longer. I guess I underestimated her scientists."
"Or her desperation," Fei added. "She doesn't have many options now except to push on, not with Pete having thrown her under the bus."
"That's true," Angela nodded. "We do have an advantage though that buys us little extra time. We know she can't use her zeppelin to get there since that's been impounded, and Ricky got word that her private plane was denied departure from UK about two hours ago. She's limited in how she can get there. My best guess is she's going to go by boat."
The Doctor scratched behind his ear. "How much extra time?"
"Hard to tell," she replied. "It depends on when she leaves, what kind of ship she's taking, and where she's landing."
"And it's safe to assume that she's already en-route," the Doctor said. "Fei and I'll be ready in one hour."
Fei's head snapped around. "We need two."
"We're going to have to deal with one."
"Rushing this process is just going to make us make mistakes," he argued. "We've got to be careful otherwise it might not work."
"Our priorities have to move," the Doctor said, an iron weight sinking slowly through his chest and into the pit of his stomach that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be going home soon after all. "The walls of the universe are more important than Jackie and I getting back. We've got an hour to do what we can."
Fei's face scrunched up, frustrated, but he nodded. "All right, one hour."
Abigail beat the pool of blood to the door, stepping out of the container and into the sharp sea air of the Atlantic Ocean. Wind whipped across her face and salt filled her lungs as she tipped her head back and drew in the deepest lungful of air she could, a laugh catching in the strong wind, snatching it away as it did the muffled sobbing that she left behind her. Blood trickling out of the container, Abigail walked away, leaving the medical staff to be frightened further by Darrell who advanced on them as a dark, looming presence. Sara popped a stick of gun in her mouth, gesturing to Tania to grab the feet of Nurse Pham, carrying her warm body to the side of the boat where her bones would sink to the seabed.
The coastline of Norway took shape before her eyes, her feet planted a foot away from the edge of the containership that carried her and her precious cargo towards the crack in the universe. She hadn't travelled much in recent years, and she enjoyed the prospect of foreign soil under her feet again even if it was only Norway. Hardly the most exciting country she had ever been to when all was said and done, though she remembered how much her mother loved the fjords.
It was a shame she wasn't visiting for a holiday.
Her plan, as it stood, was to land in the small town of Sandesher where a plane was fuelled and waiting to take her to Dåleg Ulv Stranden. And while she was waiting at the universe's edge for Darrell to return with the man who would save her father's life, her father would be in a private care facility her people had taken over that morning. It wasn't the perfect plan she spent years crafting but with the Doctor's escape and Pete's sudden burst of morality, she was forced to adapt and overcome.
Rolling her stiff neck, she stretched her back and sighed, wondering whether her father would even recognise the woman she had become in her absence. She had grown so much, done so many things, that his little girl who had her head filled with beautiful dresses and shiny jewellery was long gone. He was going to be so proud of her when he saw her, she knew it, as he had always been, even for the most insignificant of things; she couldn't wait to tell him what she had done for him, and she couldn't wait to watch him marvel at this daughter of his that was crafted out of grief and despair.
She checked her phone, re-reading the confirmation from Eva that the beach was hers. A toxic spill was the story they were running with to stop civilians creeping onto the beach with their dogs and getting in the way. Fake articles were already published online, official letters posted through the doors of nearby houses; Abigail didn't care who died, she just didn't want to have the process interrupted once it started. No one knew what was going to happen, least of all her, and the last thing she needed was someone out for a walk accidentally ruining her years of hard work. As it was, her people on the beach had orders to shoot anyone on sight that wasn't with her or her team.
There was the shadowy promise of the Doctor that loomed over her and kept her slightly off balance. He was coming. She knew it in her bones. He was too fierce, too stubborn, too patronising to let her be in her endeavour, and she expected a dramatic, last-minute attempt to get her to see reason. Already she regretted the loss of his life. He was the most fascinating person she had ever met but his insistence on ruining her affairs was at an end; she planned to let him have his say before his body lay dead at her feet.
He might care about the universes as much as he proclaimed but she was no longer naïve enough to believe that he would help her open them when a slip of his hand could close them just as easily. And if he so much as made a move towards their machines, her people had orders to shoot Jackie Tyler.
A shame however necessary.
"Abs."
A small start jumped through her body. She barely had it under control when Darrell came up behind her, his large hand spreading on the small of her back. The heat of him burned at her through the thin material of her jumper, her coat left somewhere below deck. A vague thought that if he was a gentleman, his thick coat would be draping around her shoulders, his hands tucking it around her to keep her warm, but that wasn't Darrell. He never thought of small gestures like that, laughing at the idea that he should help someone out of their own stupidity without a benefit to himself.
Part of her – a small, desperate, terrified part of her that was aware she was in over her head with him – had hoped that he was dead when she regained consciousness on the floor of her office. There had been so much blood pooled around him, dripping off his chest, his skin icy and chalk-like; and the mess of his eye turned her stomach so much that she heaved the contents of it up beneath the window before she managed to call for help. If it had been anyone else injured like that, they would still be in the hospital. Not Darrell though. His surgery had ended leaving him with one less eye, and he had limped his way out of intensive care dizzy with blood loss and set on revenge.
His hand smoothed from the small of her back, arm sliding around her waist. The hard planes of his muscles pressed against her, and she rebelled against how warmth bloomed through her and warmed her chilled flesh.
"They're all taken care of," Darrell said, nose burrowing in her hair. "Only had to shoot another one. Doctors need just one hand, right?"
She refused to look at him. "As long as they're functional enough to look after Daddy when they need to, I don't care."
There was a sickly medicinal smell to him that caused her stomach to churn. He pressed his lips to the top of her head in a kiss that felt too intimate despite everything else they had done together.
"Not long left," he told her. "How do you feel?"
"Ready," Abigail said, resting her head back at just the right angle that she pressed against his stab wound, a small pettiness that momentarily made her feel better when he hissed in pain. "I'm ready."
"That's my girl."
Body stiffening against his, she scowled. "I'm not your girl."
"Yes, you are." He slipped his hand beneath her clothes, fingers splayed across the flat of her stomach. "Louisa's left me."
"What?" The word snapped out of her. She turned in his arms, staring up at him. Bruises ran down his face from the gauze-covered empty hollow of his eye, his one good eye was fixed on her. "Why?"
"Why do you think?" His knuckles bumped beneath her chin. "She's sick of me and you."
"Then we'll stop."
His thumb hooked onto her chin and pulled lightly. "I've already signed the divorce papers. Did it when she brought them to me in ICU. One thing about Lou is that she doesn't fuck about when her mind's made up."
"But what about your kids?" Abigail's mind raced, terrified what Louisa's decision meant for her. As long as he was married, he couldn't demand too much of her. "What's going to happen –"
"What are their names?" Darrell interrupted, and she froze, mouth hanging open. She was certain she knew them, or at least had known the names once upon a time, and he curved a cutting smile at her that sliced at her soft underbelly. "That's what I thought. Don't worry about my kids. Think about what this means for us."
She swallowed, not wanting to. "It doesn't mean anything for us. We're not –"
"Not what?" He pressed, hand pressing against the small of her back, knee shoving between her legs. She realised she was trapped: if she tried to jerk away from him, her body would topple into the sea below. She was stuck and he knew it. "Don't kid yourself. You know how I feel about you, and deny it all you want, I know how you feel about me too. If I was only useful to you, you wouldn't have bothered keeping up this charade of fucking me for my loyalty. You like having me in your bed, inside you."
Colour stormed her cheeks. "Stop it."
"Abigail." He said her full name so rarely that it caught her attention and froze her in place, heart hammering against her chest. She knew what was coming and every muscle in her tensed. "I love you."
"Oh god," she breathed, disgusted.
A smile touched his features, amused rather than offended. "Don't sound so horrified."
She dragged in a breath of air, chest rising with it: she felt claustrophobic between Darrell's chest and the sea. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Don't be like that," he chided, giving her a small, almost painful, squeeze. "We make an excellent team, me and you."
Abigail shook her head, swallowing back the bile that slid up her throat and coated her tongue, an image of her vomiting on him almost making her laugh: it would serve him right, she thought. "Darrell –"
"Louisa's gone," he repeated, one arm an iron restraint around, his other lifted so he could hold her jaw in his hand. His fingers bit into her skin, jaw aching as his thumb pressed against the join, and she suddenly, desperately, and without any reason, wanted the Doctor. "And we're going to be together. It makes sense, you know it does. Who else is going to keep you safe?"
"You keep me safe because I pay you," Abigail grit out. "That's it."
"Your money helps, and I do love spending it, but what's mine is yours and yours is mine, baby." Baby. Abigail was definitely going to be sick. The vast expanse of the sea around them called to her like a siren, enticing her to jump in and lose herself beneath the frothing surface, a fate far better than having Darrell shackled to her for the rest of her days. "Who else is going to love you? After what you've done, who else is going to put up with you?"
She flinched as though struck. "Don't say that."
"It's the truth." His thumb pressed against her bottom lip and dragged, the tip touching her tongue. It was gone before she thought to bit it off and spit it in his face. "I know who you are. I see you. And I love you."
There was no one around, no one who would intervene and help her. She didn't know where Sara was and Eva, perhaps the only person who wasn't beholden to Darrell like the rest of his team, was waiting for her in Norway. Mind racing, her body slackened and she leaned against him, exhausted. His arms wrapped around her and, against her will, enclosed her with a feeling of terrifying safety. As long as he was on her side, she knew that nothing was ever going to hurt her, but Darrell reminded her of a feral beast: easy enough to care for if one knew how but the smallest wrong move and his sharp teeth would sink into her and rip her to bloody shreds.
"Darrell, please." Her pleas were muffled in the thickness of his coat, his hand curling on the back of her head. "I don't want to talk about this now."
"You never want to talk," Darrell said, a hint of bitterness in his words as though he was truly hurt by her evasion. "You only ever want me in your bed and then gone. I deserve more than that."
The thought of him lying awake at night, watching her sleep, and wanting more from her emotionally confused her. She hadn't thought Darrell capable of such feeling. He was cavalier with the love of his wife and children, tossing it aside like it meant nothing: how was she to know the rivers of his feelings ran deeper than she believed?
"Yes, you're right, you do," Abigail told him, lifting her head with what she hoped was a soft, tired expression. Her hands rested on his chest, inching towards his throat where her fingers touched his visible skin, wanting to wrap them tightly around him and choke. "Do you want more money? I can give you more. Whatever you want."
"I want you." Fingers tangling in the braids of her hair, he tugged her head back and forced her to hold his gaze. "I want every bit of you. Look at me. Look at me and tell me you don't want me too."
Her heart slammed a violent tattoo against her chest, honesty clawing its way out of her, a desperate hope that he might listen to her. "I don't want you."
"Liar."
The kiss was bruising. Her lips ached against his, the wet swipe of his tongue seeking entry that she didn't dare deny him. There were times in the past when she let him take control – not all the way, she never trusted him enough for that, but just enough that it placated him enough at the time – and this kiss felt a lot like then. He was trying to dominate her, bend her to his will, and when she had fought before, biting and snarling at him like a caged animal, this time she let him take what he wanted.
She was so tired.
"You couldn't have done any of this without me," Darrell hissed against her mouth. "Not a thing. You've been able to keep your hands clean because I got mine dirty. Don't forget that."
"You're blackmailing me into marrying you?" Abigail hoped that was the case as him blackmailing her made more sense than being in love with her.
"I'd rather you marry me because you want to, but blackmail'll do for now," he said, soothing at a small tear on her lip his teeth had left behind. "Until you come to love me."
"Never then," she said. "I'll never love you."
"Don't be a brat," he chastised. "Dark days are coming. Who the hell knows how this is going to end. There's already a warrant out for your arrest. The president has thrown you under the bus. Tyler's turned his back on you. You're not going to be able to go back to normal even with Daddy protecting you."
A flinch rippled through her. "Don't be mean."
"You need a protector," Darrell told her, "and who better than a husband?"
"Literally anyone else."
He squeezed her waist tightly, breath rushing from her. "You're mine, baby. You've been mine from the moment you let me into your bed for the first time. Don't be a bitch about it now."
"I belong to no one," she hissed. "You're what you are because of me. You're my creation."
"I belong to you, you belong to me," he mocked. "Funny how that works out, isn't it?"
He leaned forwards for another kiss only this time she turned her head, his mouth landing against her cheek. As punishment, he sank his teeth into her cheekbone hard enough to bruise, a reminder of him even when he wasn't there.
Without warning, he released her. She staggered back and caught herself before she got too close to the edge, watching him carefully as he shrugged out of his jacket.
"You shouldn't be out here without a coat." He placed it around her shoulders and tucking her still body into it, smiling when he brushed his knuckles against her cheek. "Don't look so sad, sweetheart. The things we'll do together'll make all of this worthwhile."
He left her standing there, his jaunty whistle as he walked away piercing her. She waited until he was gone, disappearing back into the ship to chat with the captain, before she burst into tears. It didn't matter what Darrell believed. She was going to be free of him as soon as she could even if she had to pull the trigger herself.
She just needed him a little longer.
As Angela predicted, neither the Doctor nor Jackie had been thrilled with the revelation that Pete was their transport to Norway. The only one with a private plane to hand in their hour of need, he had offered it up with his services as a pilot – something that made Jackie snort with laughter when he told them – and since there was no other option, both of them exchanged an annoyed look, swallowed their distaste, and boarded the plane.
His private jet dripped with luxury. Soft, light cashmere covered almost all surfaces of the interior, and the buttery leather was gentle and soothing against Jackie's skin as she sat curled up in the huge seat, head resting against the chestnut panel that framed the window. Ricky, Jake, and Angela were chatting towards the front as they made use of Pete's generous fridge that contained alcohol, soft drinks, caviar, and expensive snacks that Jackie sniffed at. The popcorn Pete had offered her with a nervous expression on his face sat open next to her, ignored except for the occasional drift of her hand for the simple lack of anything better to do with her time.
She watched the ocean beneath her, the occasional fat cloud blocking her view, and she tried to ignore the feelings that brewed inside of her. For all that she had been longing to go back home, she didn't fully believe it was about to happen. There was so much that could go wrong, and she was trying to minimise her eventual disappointment when the Doctor had to make the decision to close the walls of the universe rather than pass them through it.
Jackie wasn't sure whether she was capable of starting from scratch again. Two years was long enough to be away from home. She was done. She wanted her daughters. Her flat. Her boys. And her London.
She pressed her forehead harder against the panelling, frowning her hot tears away when a long-fingered hand plucked a handful of popcorn from the bucket. Glancing around, she watched the Doctor take the seat opposite her. His long legs folded beneath him, his feet bare as he had shucked his shoes early on in order to wriggle his toes in the carpet with a delighted expression: he looked like an overgrown child, pockets spilling with the strawberry laces he had pilfered from Pete's fridge.
Much to the Doctor's boisterous delight, Pete had been able to return his coat to him. Found and preserved by the Torchwood team that had swept Abigail's London mansion, he looked more like himself than he had in a long time. Beneath it, he wore his brown, pinstriped suit and his dark blue tie with swirls that reminded Jackie of the Time Vortex. Gone was the lovable idiot she argued about the bathroom with and in his place was the Doctor again.
For all his genial moods and childlike curiosity, he was the Doctor and that meant something, she knew it did even if she rarely saw that side of him. His clothing helped remind her of that. It was easy to pour her faith into him and trust that everything was going to be all right when he looked like himself.
"That's a lot of popcorn," the Doctor said under his mouthful, tilting his head to the side to read the tin. "6.5 gallons. Does Pete think you're a vacuum cleaner?"
"No idea, it's not even that good," Jackie told him, gesturing for him to take it. "Too sickly an' expensive."
He reached across and pulled the bucket into his lap, munching his way through the contents happily. "Why, how much is it?"
"$2,500." The Doctor paused mid chew and blinked at her. She held up her phone. "Googled it, didn't I? Man's got too much money."
He swallowed. "I don't think it's worth that much. £20, max. At a carnival."
"Don't think it comes with edible gold at carnivals, love," she said, watching as he examined a kernel closely. "Be glad to get back an' have normal food again."
"The first thing I'm doing is having chips," the Doctor said, tossing the kernel into his mouth and crunching it between his molars. "I've enjoyed them here but Rose ruined me for chips, unfortunately. I'm going to pop down the chippie, drench them in salt, vinegar, and curry sauce, and just shove them in my mouth like Mickey after a night out."
Jackie smiled. "Think I might join you."
"You're always welcome," he said, pausing as their eyes met. "I mean it. I know things are going to go back to normal when we're home, but you're always, always welcome wherever I am. There's always a place for you on the TARDIS. Not just because you're Zoe's mum, but because –"
"We're family," she finished for him, and he nodded, throat thickening with emotion. "I know, love, thank you. Can't believe I'm goin' to miss livin' with you though."
He huffed a laugh. "I'm going to miss it too. I've got used to your cups of tea in the morning."
"You'll have to pop around for one then, won't you?" Jackie said. "We can catch up about what nonsense you've been getting' my girls into."
"I can't wait." A broad smile spread across his face at the thought of it before he looked at her with an intensity that she recognised as him building up to say something important. She waited and looked back out the window, preferring not to watch him shove too much popcorn into his mouth and wrestle his jaw around it. "So...you and Fei?"
Her head snapped around, eyebrows shooting up, gratified that he had the decency to look mildly embarrassed.
She hadn't expected that.
"Oh no, we're not talkin' about this," Jackie said, shaking her head. "We don't talk about things like this. Past relationships, that's what we're best at."
"So you admit there's a relationship," the Doctor noted. "Interesting."
"Doctor."
"Look, I don't want to talk about this any more than you do," he admitted, dropping his pretence of nonchalance. "But Fei's avoiding the topic, and I think you need to talk to someone about it. Besides, I'm the best person you could choose."
Disbelief settled heavily on her features. "Really?"
"I do know a little something about relationships that, for whatever reason, won't go anywhere," he replied, twitching his eyebrows pointedly at her. "I know a little of what you're feeling at the moment."
"You mean that you Time Lords experience emotions like humans?" Jackie asked, a hint of mockery in her words. "You'd admit that, would you?"
"Only to you." She rolled her eyes even as affection bloomed for him in her chest. "Fei's told me nothing, by the way. He changed the subject when I tried to ask him about it. And the only reason I was asking in the first place is because you're wearing his shirt."
Jackie looked down, surprised. She flushed when she realised she had pulled one of Fei's shirt out of the laundry pile that morning. It could just have easily been one of Ricky or Jake's but she didn't want to sound too defensive and so said nothing.
"And I really, really don't want to know the details," he said, firmly. "I'm still traumatised from you and that Euron –"
"You shagged my daughter in a pub closet, Doctor, you don't get to be all traumatised from a snog," she replied before he worked himself up.
He ignored her. "But you're still here by yourself moping when –"
"Moping?"
"I said what I said," he replied, unbothered by her obvious offence. "But you're here, alone, with a bucket of popcorn the size of a beaver when you could be spending the time you have left in this universe with him. What are you doing?"
She shook her head. "It's not like what you're thinkin'. We're mates, that's all. There's nothin' more."
"There could be," the Doctor said, and she looked away from him again, jaw set as she stared out of the window without seeing the ocean below. "You know how he feels about you, and it's obvious to me how you feel about him. The two of you have something special."
"We don't have anythin'," Jackie denied "We're just friends."
"Friends who stay up late at night talking in the living room when they think I'm asleep?" He watched the deep red spread up through Jackie's neck and into her cheeks, rolling towards her ears. "Friends who go for lunch together and forget the person who invited them?"
"We apologised for that," she protested. "An' it was your own fault. You got distracted an' didn't catch up with us."
"My point is the two of you are more than friends," the Doctor said. "Take it from me: this is how it was with Zoe and I at the beginning. Long before I admitted to myself that I'd fallen for her and that there was something more between us, we did exactly the same as you and Fei. We orbited each other, wanted to spend time with each other, had those late-night conversations that you and Fei have had."
"It doesn't matter." Jackie ran a hand over her face, wishing the heat from her skin would die down so she didn't feel the force of the sun melting her from the inside out. "We're leavin' soon. Hopefully. An' even if we don't, we will one day, so what's the point?"
The Doctor set the bucket of popcorn to one side and wiped his sticky hands cleanish on his thighs before he sank into a crouch in front of Jackie. She stared down at him, startled, and he took her hands into his.
"You'll have this time with him," he said with a rare sincerity that rang loud and clear between them. "I've lived a long time, Jackie. Far, far longer than maybe anyone should when it comes down to it. And it's not about how long something lasts that makes a thing worthwhile, it's about how it makes you feel. Don't wait too long to do things because, if you do, you'll regret it. And I don't want you to take any regrets back with you."
Jackie stared down at him, transfixed by his earnest face. It wasn't often she remembered how old he was but, every now and then, there were flashes of his age beneath his joviality and his youthful face. It was there now: ancient and wise, a grandfather many times over, a great-grandfather as well; married, widowed; a soldier, an officer; a president, a rogue. All of his life crashed inside him like a wave, and she found it difficult to hold his gaze.
"It'll hurt."
He squeezed her hands, soft and kind as her own grandfather had been. "It's going to hurt anyway. It may as well hurt for something good, yeah?"
"I never wanted this." Tears pricked at her eyes, and instead of blinking them away, hiding herself from him, she let them fall because it was only the Doctor. "I didn't want to get close to anyone here."
"I know," the Doctor replied, letting go of one hand to remove his handkerchief and gently dry her tears. "But you deserve happiness, and Fei can give that to you if it's something you want. It won't be forever but nothing ever is. But for a moment, for one beautiful moment, you can be truly, deeply happy. Isn't that worth the pain that comes after? Haven't you survived harder things before?"
Jackie thought of Pete – her Pete, not the one in the cockpit who had hurt her so much – and breathed in deeply. Even with all the pain his death had brought her, she wouldn't change a single moment about their time together. And Fei -
She knew how she felt about him. She had known for a long time.
Jackie leaned down towards the Doctor and took his face in her hands. She was used to the startling coolness of his flesh now, revelled in it the way a child took comfort in their favourite stuff toy, and she pressed a kiss to his forehead. She felt him breathe, his hands shifting to the outside of her thighs: half a hug, half holding on.
"Thanks, love," she murmured against his skin. He hummed, enjoying their small moment of peace before she smoothed her hand over his hair and stood up. "Wish me luck."
"Luck?" Sat back on his heels, the Doctor looked up at her and smiled. "You're Jackie Tyler, you don't need luck."
Jackie lay on her side as her body tingled with the aftermath of an orgasm that melted her into the mattress, legs tangled with Fei's as she attempted to regain feeling to her toes. It was hard to take her eyes off him. Beautifully dishevelled and ruddy from the exertion of her pressing herself against him and kissing him, fingers in his hair, he hadn't taken his eyes off her since he pulled back to make sure she hadn't been taken over by an alien or something similar, and being trapped under his regard was a warm and lovely place to be. Her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks at the light touch of his fingers tracing the lines around her eyes and smoothing her hair back from her temple.
Never had she felt more beautiful than she did in that moment. Fei looked at her like she was a wonderful, miraculous thing that he couldn't believe existed, and she drenched herself in it.
Her sadness that it was all going to send soon was buried beneath the heavy layers of satisfaction and contentment. The Doctor was right: she might as well regret what she did rather than what she didn't do. And while she didn't think he meant have sex with Fei when he told her to make the most of their time together, he was grown enough to keep everyone away from the bedroom when it became clear to him what was happening. Jackie wasn't quiet at the best of times and Fei was enthusiastic in his desire for her that she was sure some noise had slipped beneath the door.
"It feels like I've waited twenty years for this," Jackie whispered, fingers pressing across the deceptively firm planes of his chest. Beneath his soft jumpers and collared shirts, he was lean and strong. "I didn't know I could love someone like I loved Pete. I never even bothered after him, not really."
"I know," Fei murmured, shifting closer. She settled in against his chest, their bodies pressed together, and she breathed in the warm, musky smell of him, filing it away for when she needed it later. "I didn't think I wanted a relationship. After my wife..." he breathed in deeply, arms tightening around her. "I got married because that's what was expected of me, and I liked my wife, she was an amazing woman. We were just – it never felt like love. We both married each other because we were friends, and we wanted the same things, and it helped keep our parents from fussing. But eventually she wanted more from me and we just grew apart. I don't blame her for leaving. I'm grateful she did because I'm not sure I'd have ever done it."
She shifted her forehead against his. "Where is she now?"
"Australia," he said. "She's the Head of Mathematics at the University of Melbourne now."
Jackie hummed, pleased. "Is she happy?"
"Yes." The lack of hesitation made her smile. "She goes surfing every morning, has two dogs, and a great group of friends. Every time we speak, she seems to glow."
"You're still friends?"
"We try to be," Fei admitted. "It was hard at first but it's easier now with social media. We both still like each other. We were just two people who shouldn't have got married."
She trailed her fingers in circles across his back before skimming them over his side. "Your parents pushed you?"
"God yes," he laughed into her hair, hand tracing the length of her spine. "My parents are traditional Chinese parents. They encouraged me into science, got me a job at the University of Beijing when I graduated, introduced me to my wife. They had a very clear path for what my life was supposed to be. I didn't really push back until Huifen left and I realised I'd been sleeping."
Jackie tilted her head back to look at him, their faces so close together that it was impossible not to kiss him first. "How did they take it?"
"Not well," Fei said, following her mouth with his and kissing small butterfly wings beneath her ear and down her neck, speaking into her skin as he did so. "They're still disappointed."
She slowly fell onto her back, Fei moving with her, and she made space for him between her legs, his mouth fixed on the curve of her neck and shoulder. "You still love them though, right?"
"God yes," he said. "They're my parents, and they just want the best for me. They'd really, really like you."
She scoffed and carded her fingers through his hair, holding him to her, eyes half-lidded. "A forty two-year-old woman with two grown children?"
"Are you kidding?" Fei pulled back, smile spreading. "They'd adore Rose and Zoe. They wouldn't care that they're grown. They'd have pictures of them on the mantlepiece. Feed them up, insist on being called Grandma and Grandpa, that sort of thing."
Jackie opened her eyes, laughing up at him. "I think the girls would like that actually. They've always loved their grandparents. They'd love gettin' more."
"See? We'd all get on." The image of it passed across his mind: two women he had seen only in pictures in his parents home being fussed over while he and Jackie watched on. He wanted it with such intensity that his jaw ached with it. "What about Rose and Zoe? Do you think they'd like me?"
"Yes." It was his turn to smile at her lack of hesitation, her immediate answer soothing a concern he hadn't known existed in him. "They'd probably threaten you a little first, but you've already got the Doctor's approval an' that'd help your case. It wouldn't take them long to warm up to you, not once Zoe realises you're a scientist. She'll adopt you just because of that. Mickey an' Jack'd love you too."
He swallowed past the lump in his throat, the soft, warm press of her body against his making him want more than he should. "Good, that's good."
She slid her fingers from his hair and traced the square, handsome features of his face. He held still for her, braced over her on his elbows, letting her drink her fill of him. Her touch left small rivulets of electricity behind, and his chest expanded with a deep inhale, watching her eyes glass over and her mouth turn down.
"I don't want to say goodbye to you," Jackie whispered, pain tightening her words. "I wish we didn't have to."
He imagined her older, grey-haired and loose-toothed, and mourned that he wasn't going to be able to grow old with her. Instead of opening his mouth to let the sob he was sure was building fall out of him, he kissed her again. Her hands held his face as though frightened he would pull away from her and leave her before she was ready.
"How long do we have left?" She murmured between his drugging kisses.
Fei didn't know, nor did he want to know.
"Long enough," he promised, kissing her anew.
Her body welcomed him when he rested his weight against her. Blood throbbing with desire, Jackie arched up into him. She shifted her knees to give him more space, his hands gentle and reverent on her. The low-simmering desire her last two orgasms had left in her began to kindle anew with his loving touches and soft explorations when a loud, obnoxious knocking disturbed them.
"I'm goin' to kill him," Jackie complained against Fei's mouth. "Zoe can get a new boyfriend."
Fei dropped his forehead to her collarbone and muffled his laugh against her skin. Behind them, the door cracked open and the Doctor's mad hair appeared first before the top half of his head followed, a hand clamped firmly over his eyes.
"I can't see anything," the Doctor assured them. "I can hear though so please stop what you are doing."
"Doctor." The thin thread of Jackie's patience was evident in her tone, cushioned as it was by her laughter. "What the bleedin' hell d'you want?"
"Very much not to be interrupting," he replied, "but we're about to land. We're on the descent, and you need to change into your suit and get moving. Sorry."
Jackie sighed and dropped her head back against the pillow, staring up at the ceiling that was also covered in cashmere. Turning her head so that her forehead rested against the inside of Fei's bicep that was balanced by her head, she sighed.
"All right," she managed. "Be there in a bit, love."
The Doctor's head disappeared before his other hand came through the door and gave her a thumb's up. He closed the door firmly behind him, and Fei looked down at Jackie.
"I can't believe I'm actually going to miss that man," he said, dryly.
"Yeah, he's got that effect on people," she complained, fingers touching his mouth. "I don't want to leave you."
"Me neither." He wrapped his arms around her and gathered her body against him, lifting her until they were sat up, her legs curled around him. His hands spread against her back and she was able to look down into his face, treasuring every second her eyes were on him. "I love you, Jackie."
Her mouth wobbled. "Fei –"
"It's okay," he breathed, shaking his head and thumbing the damp tears that appeared beneath her eyes. "I just wanted you to know."
She swallowed and sniffed. "I love you too. You're the first man I've loved since my husband. I want you to know that."
"I do," he promised, kissing her, never wanting to stop. "I know."
Jackie dragged a hand across her face, drying her eyes. "I'm not goin' to say goodbye to you. I can't."
"Okay," Fei replied, fingers pressing into her back to tattoo her heartbeat into his DNA. "How about see you around then?"
She managed a wet laugh and a nod, holding onto him for as long as she dared before forced to move off and away from him when the plane's descent was no longer ignorable.
Getting into her Void suit – named because all of the Doctor's suggestions were either too long or unpronounceable by any human tongue – was a difficult endeavour, and Fei had to help her squeeze into it. She leaned against him as he pulled it up her body, hands braced on his shoulders to stop herself jolting out of his grip. The difficulty worked at distracting her from her sadness and let her focus on what was ahead of her if they were lucky enough to get there before Abigail.
Travel by the TARDIS was hard enough at times, and she had heard only horror stories from Fei and Rita about their experiences in the subluminal tunnel that she knew enough to dread the process. She deliberately hadn't eaten a large meal so that she threw up less and she knew to hope that they hit a planet rather than anything else; while she wanted the Earth on their first go, she was going to be happy just to have solid ground beneath her feet.
Remaining still when Fei slipped his fingers into her hair and braided it back so that she wouldn't vomit into it on the other side, she caught his eyes in the mirror she stood in front of. "How d'you know how to do this?"
"My grandmother," he explained, smile touching the corners of his mouth. "I used to help her with her hair before she died. I'm a little out of practice though."
"No, it's great," she assured him, eyes closing when he leaned close and pressed a kiss to the back of her head. She caught his hand on her shoulder and held it. "Fei...stay close until the end, yeah?"
"Of course," he promised, drawing her hand to their sides.
Jackie drew in a deep breath, treasuring this final moment of solitude with Fei, before they left the bedroom. The Doctor was kneeling on his seat, faced towards her, concerned eyes fading into quiet delight at the sight of her relaxed and hand-in-hand with Fei: romantic, Jackie thought fondly. She drew the line at him cooing though; if he started, she would clobber him one. Angela, Jake, and Ricky, having had the good fortune to have been raised with manners unlike the Doctor who had clearly been dragged up in a barn, politely ignored the very obvious knowledge of what they had been doing. She met Jake's eyes, his eyebrows twitching up with a small, pleased smile for them, before she caught sight of Pete who stood in the doorway of the cockpit as his co-pilot angled them towards the ground.
Her stomach lurched, guilt flooding her at the stricken expression on his face, but she straightened her back. He wasn't her Pete and he certainly didn't deserve any inch of her guilt, not after what he had done.
She stared him down, daring him to say something to her.
"Ten minutes," Pete said, forcing the words from his mouth and looking away from her to address the cabin at large. "There'll be a car waiting at the airfield to take us on."
Ricky cleared his throat, cutting through the tension. "Right. Cheers, mate."
He nodded sharply, gave Jackie one more stricken look, before stepping back into the cockpit and closing the door behind him. Fei squeezed her fingers and she moved back to her seat opposite the Doctor as Fei kept his promise and sat next to her across the aisle, their fingers tangled between them. The Doctor glanced at their hands, grin widening as he looked at Fei who looked pointedly out of the window, before settling on Jackie who finished buckling herself in. His eyebrows waggled, and her eyes rolled.
"Shut up," she hissed.
His smile widened. "I didn't say anything."
"You're sayin' plenty," Jackie accused, and he laughed. "Put your seatbelt on."
The clank of the seatbelt as he buckled in was loud. "I'm just saying, if I was saying anything, that two of my favourite people are –"
"If you finish that sentence, I'll stomp on a banana," she threatened. Fei coughed, choking on his laugh as the Doctor gaped at her. She raised her eyebrows, threatening, and he sank back into his seat with amused disappointment. Only when she was certain he wasn't going to insist on gossiping about her sex life like they were teenage girls did she speak to him again. "Talk me through it one more time."
The Doctor's smile dimmed as he took in her nerves, shifting his foot so their feet were pressed together.
"Fei's going to activate the subluminal tunnel," he explained, carefully and clearly. "It's going to be pointed through the crack that exists in this universe and it's going to latch on to a crack in our universe. I've calibrated it so that it lands on a planet with an appropriate atmosphere, but our choices are limited because it's only able to open on the other end with another crack. I'm confident there are still some left because as much time as passed here won't have passed there. However, I don't know whether we'll end up on Earth or somewhere else."
She nodded, focusing on her breathing even as the suit made her feel claustrophobic. "Just as long as we don't end up in space."
"Agreed." There was a miniscule chance of that happening, but the Doctor didn't think it was necessary to tell her the percentages. "I'm not going to lie, it's going to be really rough getting there. Just keep hold of me. We can't be separated."
Jackie swallowed, pale, and nodded. "We'll do it."
"Yeah, we will," the Doctor said. "And once we're on the other side, we can call Zoe and Jack. One of them will be able to come and pick us up."
"We don't have our phones," she pointed out.
"Doesn't matter," he reassured her familiar worry. "All we need is a communication device and I can make it work. We just need to find something on the planet we end up on and we'll be in business."
She frowned. "An' if we don't?"
"Then I'll think of something," the Doctor promised her, leaning forward to take her other hand. She felt safe and cared for, bracketed between the two men as she was. "Haven't let you down yet, have I?"
"No, you haven't," she admitted. "I'm just nervous."
"Me too."
He squeezed her hand and let it go to lean back in his seat as the plane landed, kissing the tarmac softly. Jackie watched the runway speed past beneath the wings, noticing there was already a small team of people waiting near the terminal. As soon as the plane stopped and the engine cut out, Ricky was out of the door and bounding towards the Preacher's Norwegian supporters, people who had answered the call to arms Jake put out as soon as they knew that Abigail had found the crack.
Jackie and Fei left the plane hand-in-hand to find the Doctor and Angela in deep conversation, Jake scratching behind his ear, a troubled expression on his face as Ricky oversaw the careful removal of the machine.
"What is it?" Jackie asked, stomach sinking. "What's happened?"
"We're late," the Doctor said, grimly. "She's already here."
