Episode: The Master Stitches
Chapter: Pizza and a Movie [1/5]
Summary: Torchwood wanted to find a way to fix the problem without anyone killing each other first. Amy and Rory wanted to keep a secret while keeping everyone safe. Jack wanted to get rid of the Master before he was driven insane. Koschei just wanted… He wanted… What was it again? Or the one where things gets fixed but still stay broken… and where things get better yet worse at the same time.
Rating: T
It's not that Gwen's coffee is bad, but when compared to Ianto's, it lacks a certain something. Then again, everyone's coffee lacks a certain something when compared to Ianto's coffee.
That doesn't stop Gwen from trying, though. Tosh certainly seems to appreciate it, if her smile is anything to go by.
"Thank you," she tells Gwen as she accepts the cup, looking at Jack's office almost unconsciously.
The curtains are closed. Whatever it is Jack and Ianto are talking about, they're quiet enough not to attract unwanted attention, despite the way everyone keeps glancing up.
"What do you think that is all about?" Tosh asks carefully, knowing as well as Gwen that they shouldn't pry, but then again, today has been weirder than usual.
The day they found the first body was weird. It was supposed to be nothing but a Weevil, the spike in Rift activity couldn't be anything else, and yet, the body was obviously not a victim of a Weevil. They spent all day investigating, digging through the archives, checking the area, trying to find a match for the victim… All in vain. When nothing happened the next day, and another spike of Rift activity resulted in the expected Weevil, Tosh theorized the victim could have been someone caught in the Rift, not too far in the past or the future, judging by the clothing, who hadn't had the same luck the passengers of the Sky Gypsy had.
And then, they found another body.
After that, the week had gone from weird to frustrating, finding no clues as to what was going on, and with even Jack, with all his future knowledge and experience, completely in the dark.
Until today.
Gwen can't help but look towards the couch, where their three 'guests' are. The Master is lying down on it, wrapped in a thick blanket, and with his head on Amy's lap, who is stroking his hair softly as she converses with Rory, sitting on the small table in front of the couch.
The Master had collapsed a couple seconds after telling them the 'Time War' was returning, which had snapped Jack out of his shock. They'd decided to go to the Hub and figure things out once there, and so here they are now.
Owen is performing the autopsy of their latest body, though he has already told them that he doesn't expect much. Tosh is running more analysis on the peaks of Rift activity that resulted in bodies, as well as the one in the alley. Gwen is supposed to be helping her with that, checking the cameras using different settings now that they know it was that black mist thing the one responsible, but she really needed the coffee.
And, seeing how Ianto is busy talking to Jack, that meant she had to make it herself.
"I met him, once," Tosh tells her with a smile, looking at the trio on the couch. "This Doctor they keep talking about. Jack's Doctor."
"You did?" Gwen asks before she can stop herself, startled and extremely curious.
The only thing Jack ever says about him is that he's 'the right kind of doctor', which is nothing and yet everything at the same time.
Not a medical doctor, or any other kind of academic, but a doctor of time travel and temporal phenomena. A Doctor who needs, or has, no name. Just like Saxon, this 'Master' with no name.
"Do you remember the spaceship that crashed into the Big Ben, back in 2006?" Tosh asks her, and Gwen feels her eyes go wide as she answers with an incredulous smile. "Well, it actually was a hoax. Only, it was aliens who orchestrated the hoax."
"Why would aliens fake aliens?" Gwen asks, frowning yet still unable to fully wipe off her incredulous smirk.
"To take over 10 Downing Street and destroy the Earth, apparently," Owen answers as he joins them, unbothered by the way the women startle. "That's what it says in the UNIT reports, at least. Not sure what happened, exactly, since all of their experts died, but that's what they got out of Harriet Jones," he adds, accepting his own cup of coffee with a nod before taking a sip.
"And the Doctor was there?" Gwen asks Tosh as Owen leans on the desk by their side, as enthralled as she is.
"Yes, he was. I was called in from Torchwood while they flew in the UNIT experts, to look over the body of the 'alien'."
"The Space Pig," Owen snorts, and Tosh laughs while Gwen looks between them in confusion.
"The what?"
"It was a pig," Tosh explains, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as she shifts her gaze away from Owen's roguish grin. "The 'alien' was actually a pig. Someone had augmented it using technology, rewired its brain. I'd x-rayed its skull and assumed it was an alien, because the technology looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. I put it in a cooler in the mortuary to show the people from UNIT, but it revived in the middle of the night and broke out of it. It startled me so badly that I fell and hit my head against a table," she tells them, slightly embarrassed as she traces a line on her temple where the old injury had been, though her excitement quickly covers it. "I screamed, lost sight of the alien. And then, this man just bursts into the room, a whole platoon of red berets following him, and starts barking orders."
"The Doctor," Gwen whispers, earning a nod from Tosh before she looks at the couch, Gwen following her line of sight.
"The Master, he's actually wearing his leather jacket. He reminds me a lot of the Doctor, but maybe it's a Time Lord thing. The Doctor had been like that too, you know? He'd been so focused on the mission, but when he realized the 'alien' was still in the room with us, he'd ordered one of the soldiers to stay by my side while he approached it. And he was so gentle. The pig ran away, scared, and when he followed, he was shouting 'don't shoot it'," Tosh adds before her smile turns into something more somber. "They shot it. I think the soldiers were as scared as the pig. But the Doctor… He was sad. He was so sad, even if it turned out it was just an ordinary pig someone had modified to have it pass for an alien. It was just a pig. But he had been so sad…"
"That's what Rory said," Gwen says out loud as she remembers that disjointed retelling of what actually happened with the whole Prisoner Zero thing. "The Doctor called the aliens back and told them everyone is important. And the Master obviously cares about his friends. Did you see his face when he started calling for Amy?"
"And the way Jack admires the Doctor. Though, I have to admit I'm confused about the whole face-changing thing," Owen adds, frowning into his coffee before meeting their eyes. "Remember what Jack said? How, unlike someone, he doesn't change his face?"
"Well…" Tosh starts, hesitating visibly, and, as one, all three chance a look at the office to make sure neither Jack nor Ianto are coming. "Remember when he was flickering? When he was attacked by that temporal void thing? One of the faces… I think one of the faces was that of my Doctor. The one with the leather jacket? His hair was short and dark then, like the Doctor I met."
"Do you think he meant that literally? Not as, you know, a disguise?" Gwen asks, startled, while Owen shrugs.
"So, he's a shapeshifter. How do we even know he's this Master Jack thinks he is then?"
"How do we know he's not actually the Doctor? Jack said he was quoting someone, and the way he reacted…"
"Why would anyone, Master or Doctor, take the face of Harold Saxon? The blond hair and the stubble don't make him any less recognizable," Gwen points out, looking at where Amy and Rory seem to be arguing softly over the unconscious alien's head.
"He thought it was 2006," Owen points out.
"And he did say he hadn't chosen that face… Does that mean he can't change it now?" Tosh adds, frowning softly despite the way her eyes shine in interest.
"Do you think we can ask them? They said they couldn't tell us things because they are from the future, but we won't be asking about the future," Gwen suggests, and, after exchanging a look, Owen pushes off the desk while Tosh picks up her cup with an excited grin.
"The scans are running, and we have everything else saved so the Master can check it over once he's feeling better," she tells them after a couple clicks to make sure, while Owen grabs a kit from his own desk.
"And if we want to make sure he gets better, it's time for me to check up on him, alien or not," Owen adds as he leads the way to the sofa, with Gwen picking up the tray with the coffee pot and the teapot on it, hoping they're still hot.
Amy frowns at them, suspicious, while Rory carefully stands up to confront them.
"Uh, is everything alright?" he asks them, and Owen answers by lifting his kit to eye level.
"Just here to check up on our patient. Still unconscious? Any changes?" Owen asks as Rory steps aside, kneeling by the Master's side under Amy's scrutiny.
"Actually, yes. We're not sure what to make of it," Rory answers with a grimace, and Gwen hurries to his side to offer him anything on the tray. "Ah, some tea would be great, thank you."
"He has a fever," Amy confesses with a sigh, worry taking over her suspicion, as Owen rests the back of his hand on the Master's forehead. "I know it doesn't look like it, but his normal temperature is usually cool. And now…"
"Now, he seems to be at a perfectly normal thirty-seven degrees. If he was human, I'd say he's healthy," Owen finishes for her, carefully lifting the blanket off the Master before he opens his kit. "Anything else?"
"He… I don't know what to call it, but he was making this… chirping before, but not anymore. I thought that meant he'd fallen asleep, but maybe it was the fever?" Amy tells them, though the way her voice wavers, it almost makes it sound like a question.
"Chirping? Do you think it was an alien language?" Tosh asks, quietly excited, and Amy and Rory exchange a hesitant look.
"Maybe?" he finally answers with a shrug, running a hand through his hair. "The Doctor told us the TARDIS translates alien languages straight into your brain. And she has never failed before… Though, apparently, she doesn't translate swear words."
"The TARDIS is a she? I thought it was your ship. Box. Box-thing," Gwen asks, giving words to Owen's hum, who's trying to listen to the Master's hearts.
"She's both," Amy answers this time, grinning. "The TARDIS is the Doctor's ship, disguised as a police box. She's alive, and she's actually bigger on the inside."
"It's a different dimension," Rory adds when he sees their incredulous looks, and, after a moment reminding herself of all the things she's seen, from sex gas aliens to the Devil itself, Gwen decides to just nod and move on.
"Right. So, who's he? I mean really, truly. Harold Saxon, Harry Smith, the Master?" she asks, nodding towards the blond alien, and then, exchanging a look with Tosh, decides to take one more guess. "The Doctor?"
The way both Amy and Rory snap to her at that last one, wide-eyed like deer caught in the headlights, is all the answer Gwen needs.
"I knew it!" Tosh exclaims softly, looking back at the office to make sure it's still closed.
"Uh, no, he's not the Doctor. Why would you think he's the Doctor?" Amy asks, trying her best at a blank face, but her slightly widened eyes and the way Rory shifts in his spot without meeting their eyes give them away.
"I met the Doctor two years ago, and he reminds me so much of him. All gruff and snarky, ordering people around, yet caring so deeply at the same time… What I don't understand is how he changed his face, his whole body. He used to be taller," Tosh explains without hesitation, and, finally, their guests give up the charade.
"Alright, he is, but don't tell Captain Hotness over there. The whole thing with keeping the timelines intact is really serious," Amy concedes, glaring them all into nods of agreement.
"Did you seriously call Captain Harkness 'Captain Hotness'?" Rory asks with a grimace, and Gwen snickers when she registers that, with Tosh turning away to hide her smile and Owen snorting with a grin.
"Tell me you hadn't thought it too."
"I—No! Of course not! I love you, and I'm straight!"
"Then why was the Doctor talking about—"
"Can we not talk about that again? You said so yourself, he loves messing with people!" Rory protests, blushing madly, but Amy's already grinning, satisfied with his reaction.
"He has that effect on people," Gwen tells Rory, deciding to cheer the poor man up.
"Captain Harkness or the Doctor?" he asks instead, and, this time, she can't help but laugh softly.
"I was going to say Jack, but I guess the Doctor too," she answers, looking to Amy, who nods with a fake sagely expression.
Owen sits back on his heels, wrapping his kit up, and the banter dies as they turn to him.
"All looks clear. His breathing is a bit strained, and then there's the fever, but I'd say his body is dealing with it on its own. Without knowing more about his species, it's a bit difficult to be sure, though."
"And without the TARDIS to help along, that's the best we can do," Amy adds with a sigh, going back to petting the Doctor's hair. "He always does this, you know. He's always getting in trouble to keep people safe."
"Is that how he got the scars?" Owen asks softly, looking up for a moment from the bandaged hand he's looking over for any bloodstains.
"Yes. The Daleks, these aliens that look like giant peppershakers, convinced Churchill they were war machines to help him defeat the Nazis. They wanted to get the Doctor's attention to revive their race, and… They did it. The Doctor almost blew them up, but he had to come back to Earth to defuse a bomb instead, and they got away. History can change, but some things need to happen. It didn't matter who won the war or how, but Earth couldn't be destroyed. So, please, don't tell Captain Jack about who he really is," she explains, and, more solemn, all three Torchwood operatives nod.
"What about this 'Master' Jack thinks he actually is? How come the Doctor has his face now?" Tosh asks softly, cradling her cup close to her chest, and Amy and Rory grimace.
"He was… He was the Doctor's best friend. He died in his arms," Amy answers simply, looking down at the slight frown on the alien's face, which she tries to smooth with one hand. "His planet is gone, his people dead. There was this war with the Daleks, and both sides were obliterated. Only the Doctor survived, but… He blames himself for it, he says he destroyed Gallifrey, and so he doesn't want to be called the Doctor anymore. For him, the Doctor is dead," she adds softly, but to Gwen's confusion, she smiles hopefully a moment later, looking up to meet everyone's eyes. "But we met this woman in the future, River Song. She knows the Doctor in his future, and she said he'll get better, that he'll be the Doctor again. We just need to stay by his side, and remind him he can be the Doctor."
"It actually works. We came from Sicily, back in Ancient Greece, where these alien snakes had crash-landed after their planet was destroyed. One of them suffered a genetic condition, and the mother started turning the men of the polis into hybrids to try to find a cure. We didn't know that, though, we thought she wanted to take over the island or something, and that she fed the men she took to her second daughter, but the Doctor figured it out. Sure, he had to be thrown into a whirlpool first, but then he managed to get both armies to stand down without a single drop of blood being shed. He really saved everyone there," Rory explains with a grin, and even Owen looks impressed, with Gwen and Tosh exchanging awed smiles.
"If you don't give up, if you keep believing, the most amazing things can come true," Amy adds, though her proud smile turns sad when she looks down at the Doctor. "That's how he defeated Saxon, the actual Saxon. It's a Time Lord trick, he can turn your hope and belief into energy that he can then use to change the present. As far as I understand it, he can see many possible futures, and he can use that energy to take what he wants from any of them, or from many different ones, or even to change the present so that the future changes too."
"Is that what he did with the thing in the alley? The, what did they call it, temporal void? Neverwere?" Gwen asks, and Amy opens her mouth before a violent shudder and a whine from the Doctor startles her, her hand quickly gripping his shoulder to keep him from falling, even as both Owen and Rory reach for him.
He's grimacing in pain, twisting under the blanket and gasping, though, after some soft reassurances from Amy, he slowly calms down.
Owen immediately checks his temperature again, and, when he grimaces, Gwen takes off to get some ice even before he has to ask.
"What we need is Jack," Tosh is saying when Gwen returns with a bag of ice cubes wrapped in a towel. "He managed to stabilize him, get him to focus. His immortality was helping him heal."
"Do you want to barge in there and tell him that? As far as he knows, this guy here is the bastard who tortured him for a year, and not the man who saved him. Besides, I bet ten quid Jack's done telling Ianto the Doctor is not the dangerous criminal from the files and they're shagging on the desk now."
"Owen!"
"Fine, twenty quid. A pizza? I bet you a pizza, that's my final offer."
"And I bet you a pizza Jack is still calming Ianto down. Ianto worked in Canary Wharf, and the Doctor was apparently responsible for the whole Cybermen invasion thing. Remember Lisa?" Gwen interrupts, dropping the ice in Owen's lap, who curses before picking it up with a glare that she answers with an unrepentant wink. "Any news?"
"Other than more chirping, nothing," Amy answers, her amused grin dying as she adjusts the ice bag Owen gives her on the Doctor's forehead.
He deflates with a sigh, shuddering one more time before settling down. Gwen understands why they insist on calling the sounds 'chirping' now, hearing them herself. They're oddly layered, like a bunch of different sounds spoken at the same time, in the same second, though some of them go on for longer, sounding more like an oddly musical warbling that seems to play over itself before fading. Like a wave bouncing off the wall of the pool, collapsing over itself as it rolls over its own trail.
"Are you sure this isn't a language? It sounds really complex to be just odd sounds," she asks, sitting on one of the chairs someone has put around the sofa while she was retrieving the ice cubes.
"We don't know. With the TARDIS gone, it can just be that there's no one to translate it," Rory says yet again, though he doesn't sound annoyed at his having to repeat himself.
"Or maybe… He told me that Gallifreyan, the language of the Time Lords, doesn't translate. Not even the TARDIS can translate it," Amy adds, looking down at the alien on her lap with realization. "Maybe he's doing what he did in the alley, quoting the past, only it's of his time back with other Time Lords."
"It's a beautiful language," Tosh whispers, smiling in awe, and Gwen can't help but agree.
"It's a mess of a language. It's like he's speaking whole sentences at once. No wonder no one can translate it," Owen huffs, taking his own chair and grimacing as he sips from his cold coffee.
"How can it be possible for someone to speak many sentences at once?" Gwen asks with a frown, looking down at the alien. "I mean, we can't, and he doesn't look any different from a human."
"He has two hearts."
"Still."
"Alien," Rory points out, completely calm and unbothered, and Gwen finally gives up, chuckling.
"Is that going to become your default answer to everything?" Amy asks him suspiciously, and, eyes widening in a clear uh-oh, he hurries to sip from his tea to avoid having to answer, though he grimaces a moment later when he realizes his drink has gone cold. "Right, whatever. So, what happens now?"
The door of Jack's office opens, and both him and Ianto step out. Their clothes are not ruffled, Ianto looks like he's been forced to swallow a lemon but decided he can live with that, and Jack is smiling tiredly.
"You owe me a pizza, Owen."
"Yeah, no shit. Right, anyone else?"
And, completely shamelessly, everyone delivers their orders for their favorites, to Owen's chagrin.
"Could we get a large one with lots of meat? He'll probably be famished when he wakes up," Amy adds after Owen's done writing them all down on a piece of paper he retrieved from his desk, even Jack's and Ianto's. "And, since he can eat a lot on a normal meal, I really don't want to see what he can do this time."
"Sure, why not. Extra-large meat lovers for the alien. Anything else?"
"What do you call a war of one?"
Startled, everyone turns to Amy, who, like them, is staring wide-eyed at the Doctor. There's a small frown on his face once again, but this time, his eyes are half open, if unfocused. It looks like Jack's presence is helping, even though he's just standing behind the ring of chairs.
"I don't know. What do you call a war of one?" Amy asks him, brushing his hair away from his forehead, but the Doctor just blinks and doesn't answer, lost in his mind. "Well, at least we can understand him now."
"So, what's the progress?" Jack asks when Owen leaves to order their food, so Tosh reports about the new scans she's running and Ianto goes to make some fresh coffee and tea.
Gwen follows him, bringing the old tray and abandoned cups, which he accepts with a nod.
"Everything alright?" she asks him softly, and, after a moment, Ianto sighs and lets his shoulders slump the tiniest bit.
"Not really. The Doctor's supposed to be Torchwood's greatest enemy, according to Queen Victoria's own orders upon its foundation. The Doctor is the reason Torchwood was created. But Jack seems convinced he's the best thing that could happen to Earth, and that it doesn't matter how evil this Master is supposed to be. If the Doctor trusts him, Jack will trust him to fix the situation too, no matter how much he knows he's not to be trusted," he explains, going through the motions of preparing the pots, which Gwen knows actually helps him calm down. "I can't understand why. After what happened to Lisa—" he starts, though he cuts himself as soon as the name goes past his lips.
"Hey, it's alright. You don't have to trust the Master. Just trust he knows what he's doing. Once this thing with the Rift is fixed, he'll leave and never come back again," Gwen tries to reassure him, even though she knows she'll have no luck with it.
Jack's the one who usually gets through Ianto's thick skull, and this topic is actually a really tough one to deal with. But still, Gwen tries, because Ianto's her friend and she really doesn't want to see him down.
He takes a deep breath, staring into nothingness for a moment, before finally sighing again and nodding.
He doesn't like it, but he'll take it. That's the best they could hope for.
"Now, any ideas on how we can get Captain Hotness to stick close to the Master, so we can fix him faster and be rid of him?" she asks, trying to put as much humor in the request as she can, and Ianto turns to her with a lifted eyebrow.
"Captain Hotness?"
"Amy's words, not mine," she answers, and, finally, Ianto smiles.
"Can't say I disagree."
"Me neither. So, ideas? Because I don't think I can get them to sit together without bloodshed."
"You'd need a distraction for that, or Jack will just lock himself in the office or work on the consoles until he drops," Ianto comments, returning his attention to the drinks while Gwen ponders that thought.
"Well, seeing how the Master is not well enough to actually do anything of profit, what do you suggest? Movie night?"
It won't be the first movie night they have at the Hub. They happen every now and then, when they have to run tests or scans and have too little time to go home for food or rest. Usually, they just eat together and chat, but occasionally they will squeeze in the couch for a movie or some episode of a sitcom or anything of the like. The issue is just how picky Jack can be with movies, refusing anything historical or sci-fi in order to 'preserve his sanity'. Up until the Abaddon incident, they'd just thought him very peculiar, or, in Owen's words, 'anal' about it, but now that the whole team knows he's from the future, it makes a lot more sense.
"Do we have anything in the Hub that would keep both of them busy enough not to remember who's sitting next to them?" she adds after pondering that thought some more.
They have already watched the few DVDs they have around, after all, and, whenever they know there's going to be a long night waiting for them, someone brings one of their own from their home and takes it back after, so that leaves their collection rather poor.
"I may have something," Ianto answers with a mysterious grin, and Gwen can't help her own excited smile.
She's tasked with preparing a tray with cups and the drinks and some snacks while he goes fetch it, and, when he returns, Gwen just has to laugh.
"Oh my God. It's genius! How come you brought this movie today? You know how Jack is about these," she asks him, turning the case around so she can read through the synopsis, despite already knowing what it is about.
"I bought it for my nephew. Tomorrow's his birthday, and this one was a favorite of mine when I was younger," he explains, picking the tray and making his way back to the couch.
"You have a nephew?" she questions, startled, and Ianto just nods. "You never told us."
"You never asked," he retorts, though his grin tells her he's teasing. "A nephew and a niece, actually. Their father is a jackass."
"Your brother?"
"No, thank God," he answers with an eyeroll, waiting while Gwen fetches a laptop to play the movie in.
"Ah, so it's your sister then," she hums with a nod, catching up to him so they can join the others at the couch. "Did you watch the movie with her?"
"I don't have siblings, Gwen," he tells her nonchalantly, but Gwen feels her stomach fall.
"Oh, God, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up," she apologizes, cursing herself in her brain for how insensitive she'd been.
Then again, it isn't really her fault she didn't know Ianto's sister was dead—
"What are you talking about?" he asks, genuinely confused, and Gwen stops in her tracks, looking deep into his eyes.
"Your… Your sister is alive?"
"I don't have a sister. Never have," he answers calmly, though there's a hint of worry in his eyes. "Are you alright?"
"Ianto. If you don't have siblings, how come you have a nephew and a niece?" she asks slowly, remembering a comment Andy made when Torchwood had gone down to investigate the latest mangled corpse.
He'd asked if Torchwood had managed to ID the victims, because one man had just walked in the afternoon before, looking for someone he couldn't remember but that he was sure had gone missing from his life. She had told him they didn't have anything yet, but how she didn't think it was related, and he'd agreed. After all, Andy had said the man had been drunk, if not so much that they would've thought he should be forgetting about his family or friends, and how he'd stopped those comments once he'd sobered up after a night at the station.
Andy had just been a bit paranoid, what with the weird things happening at Cardiff. It hadn't been anything else.
But now, watching as Ianto tries to find an answer to her question, Gwen thinks they might have just found out why they can't ID the victims.
"Oh, God," Ianto manages to say, eyes wide, and, pursing her lips, Gwen takes point as they rejoin the others at the couch.