A Child Evermore

Episode Three: Life During Wartime

Featuring Ace and Captain Jack Harkness

The night was harsh and black. Rain spattered on the roof of Trevor Hardy's car as his old grey eyes gazed out at the darkness. His car had pulled up outside a house in the middle of Hyke Street, a few miles outside of Cardiff. He had news to impart and it would break his heart. There was a mother waiting for her son to get home and he knew where her son was. He had been following up a lead in his investigations all night and had found a fizzing heap of hair and skin. His scanner had identified the heap as the remnants of the son and now he had the dreadful news to impart. This was always the hardest bit. He got out of the car and headed to the doorstep of Ms Evelyn Jackson.
"Yes, what is it?" Evelyn wondered, somewhat shocked by the intense man with soaked brown hair and a moist grey jacket.
"Ms Evelyn Jackson?" DI Hardy asked.
"Yes, that would be me. Why have you turned up out of thin air?"
"It's about your son."
"What about him?"
"He's dead."
Evelyn put her hand to her mouth.
"Tell me more inside. You must be getting soaked." she said, stepping out of the way and allowing him to enter.
"Thank you. Allow me to tell you about Torchwood." he replied, closing the door.

Ace instinctively knew that she had not arrived in 2020. This was mainly because she could hear an air-raid siren in the distance and knew that she had arrived in Cardiff sometime during the 1940s. She had been to this time period before with the Doctor, but she could feel that her past self wasn't nearby. Her Time Lord training would allow her to feel if a past version of her was near but she could just feel a trace, which meant that it was a year after she had visited this era.
"Excuse me, could you help me?" came a Scottish voice from behind her. For a second she thought it was the Doctor but realised that the voice belonged to a young man dressed in a military jacket, black waistcoat and blue shirt, with a shock of ginger hair on his head.
"What can I help you with?" Ace wondered, curious to see why the stranger had gone to her for help.
"I've got you on file as Dorothy McShane: am I correct?"
"Yeah. Hopefully your file also says something about my skills with explosives."
"Yes. Your travels with the Doctor fascinate one of my team. Mind if I take you to him?"
"Sure." Ace replied, knowing that this was something the Doctor would have done.

Captain Jack Harkness sat in the Hub, examining the files on the Limehouse incident. He had refused to go and clear up the mess with the rest of the team of course. He had already been there, with the Doctor and Rose. Oh how he missed those days.
"Jack, I've brought you Ms McShane." Tim Donovan announced, interrupting his thoughts and allowing Jack to look at Ace, recognising her from the file. She looked a bit older but Dorothy was still Dorothy.
"What exactly is this place?" Ace wondered, "Some sort of top secret research facility?"
"Not really. This is Torchwood." Jack explained, indicating the room around him, "We defend the Earth from alien attacks and use whatever alien tech we find to protect humanity."
"I happen to know a space-time traveller who wouldn't approve."
"That's why you interest me. I was told that I wouldn't see the Doctor until the twenty-first century but you can get me to him."
Ace thought about this for a moment. Should she bring a man she barely knew into her TARDIS and off into the twenty-first century? She almost considered saying yes but was cut off when Trevor Hardy entered.
"What did you find Trevor?" Tim asked him. But Trevor didn't respond. Instead his entire body changed and reformed into a strange creature with an arched neckless head and red rubbery skin covered in suckers.
"Zygon!" Tim cried, firing his revolver several times at the creature but Ace stopped him.
"We need him alive you idiot!" she yelled, hoping that the Zygon now lying on the floor of the Hub wasn't dead. Thankfully it wasn't.

In a few moments, the Zygon was chained up and Ace and Jack were interrogating it, whilst Tim watched from a distance.
"What do you want?" Ace asked, "Why are you here?"
"We are without a home." the Zygon rasped, weakly, "We wish to live as humans in this city."
"The humans here won't accept you. Just find an abandoned bit of wilderness to live in." Jack warned, but Ace stopped him.
"Perhaps have a little bit of optimism mate. The whole world doesn't act like you think it does." she advised.
"And what would you know about the world?" Jack demanded, immediately realising the answer. He knew that the Doctor's influence had rubbed off on her somewhat. It would be odder if she had a TARDIS to hand as well.
"There is going to be a rescue squadron sent to find me." the Zygon groaned, "You must release me or your humans will be harmed."
Ace glanced at Jack.
"We need to let it go." she pleaded.
Jack placed a hand on Ace's shoulder and smiled.
"Okay. But you can let it go." Jack said.

The Zygon decided to take the form of the version of the Doctor which Ace had travelled with and that annoyed Ace slightly. She aimed to be better than the Doctor and didn't want him turning up out of thin air. She took the Zygon to a nearby park and stood by a tree, watching it change back into its natural form and walk away.

She then walked back to her TARDIS, only to find Jack stood by it, examining it with his vortex manipulator.
"Mate, this is mine and you're not going in it." Ace protested, entering the TARDIS, "You were told you were going to see the Doctor in the twenty-first century so you have to wait it out."
"Dorothy-" Jack pleaded.
"Ace. My name is Ace." Ace interrupted.
"Ace. Please let me get back to the Doctor."
"No."
Ace entered the TARDIS and activated the dematerialisation control, making the crystal at the centre of the console flash wildly and the TARDIS wheezed and howled away, leaving Jack alone.
"Looks like I'll have to get there the long way round." he grumbled, walking off back to the Hub.

THE END