A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I'm curious where they go in the Special, too; I'm also hoping they let the Doctor process everything that's happened, with her sense of identity as well as all her new issues with the Master.

4. The Intervention

The Doctor didn't say it, but Jack knew the prison break was just the latest in a long line of tiring trials for her, so when she didn't jump at the chance to go see her friends immediately, he figured offering to make tea would be better.

"Tea would be great," she said, flashing him a grateful smile. She fiddled with something on the console, distracting herself, but Jack stopped and studied her. Small, smiley and scrappy would probably be the impression he got for this time around. But also secretive. Secretive, and sad.

She clocked him watching. "All right, Jack? Need help finding the kitchen?"

Jack shook his head. He raced over to where she was standing with a big, beaming smile, grabbed one of her suspenders and pulled her into the warmest kiss he could muster up, letting her go and lifting her off her feet into a spin while she was still dazed.

So easy to lift. So skinny, even for someone as small as she was now.

The Doctor had recovered when he set her back down and finished off with a bear hug, patting him warmly on the back as he squeezed her hard. "Never got to greet you earlier, Doctor," he said.

"Never change, Jack," she laughed from within the crush of his embrace. "Never change."

He leant back, taking her face in his hands and messing up her blonde hair. "Didn't get a good look at you before, either." He examined her as she gave a good natured eye roll. "Well, you are gorgeous." He noticed the dark roots in her hair. "But how's this work, Doctor? Is it natural?"

"Sure, why not?"

He tucked her hair back behind her ear, finding the earring chain. "This is new, too."

"It gets better," she said, showing him the lining on the inside of her coat. "Look, see?"

"Ah, love it! Where's it from?"

"Charity shop, Sheffield."

He chuckled, finally letting her squirm her face out from his grip. "Sounds like you're British again though."

"Absolutely!"

"Not ginger."

"Not...this time, no." She shook off the odd pause with a bright smile. "If you like Graham for a silver fox, you'd have loved me the last time around."

"I always love you, Doctor," he said, then froze. That had come out far more sincere than he had intended it to and they both knew it. The Doctor cleared her throat, shuffled her feet awkwardly. "So, tea?" he said, beaming.

"Tea. And bring the biscuits too!"

Jack headed quickly into the TARDIS, a wan smile on his face. He combed a hand through his hair. He never learnt, did he?

Oh, well. It wasn't his style to feel bad about it.

It took nearly the entire teapot before he could get the Doctor to fill him in on everything that had happened.

"Wait, you met Byron? Mad, bad and dangerous to know?"

"Yeah. Night they were supposed to be telling horror stories. Guess they came up with that for a cover story when people asked where the idea for Frankenstein came from."

"...Was he a good kisser?"

She rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't know! Nobody kissed him."

"Bet he tried it on though."

She hummed noncommittally, which Jack figured was answer enough. She cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Well, anyway, then we ended up trying to stop the Cybermen in the far future. The last humans were down to seven. The survivors from that tiny group are on modern day Earth right now."

"Are you going to take them back?" he asked.

"Don't know yet. Couldn't blame them if they didn't want to go. 'Course, that would mean allowing humanity to die out in the far future."

"Fair point, fair point...so, how did you escape from the Cybermen?"

The Doctor's face fell. She took a deep drink of her tea, pulling a disappointed face when it came up empty. "I didn't. Not really. There was a portal..."

Jack was silent. He was getting the feeling that it was best to let this incarnation talk in her own time, though it was an odd feeling. The conversations he'd had about Gallifrey with the Doctor the last time around suddenly felt a million years ago.

"...a portal to Gallifrey," she finished. "I mean, I doubt it normally goes to Gallifrey. I think the portal just finds what a person considers...home. Anyway! Never really got the chance to figure that out."

"O...K?"

"To be honest, Jack, this last battle, I...didn't save anyone. There was someone who threatened to kill my friends and the survivors if I didn't go with him."

"What? Who?"

Her eyes were on the floor as she practically mumbled her answer.

"Sorry, Doctor, didn't catch that?"

"The Master," she said, meeting his eyes quickly before looking away. "He...came back again."

Jack almost choked on his tea and tried to play it off as a cough. "He - he what?"

"Yeah, he uh...really put some effort into it. Pretended to be a secret agent for years, just to trip me up, I guess."

Jack's draw had dropped. "Wait, back up, you mean the one who ran for Prime Minister?"

"No." The Doctor was clutching her arms in close, now looking downright miserable. "He's had other faces since then."

Jack studied her, taking in the slumped slope of her shoulders and unhappy downturn of her mouth. He gathered his nerve and said abruptly, "What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, Doctor. You can talk to me. I know how thorny anything related to home is for you."

She fidgeted a bit, then sighed. "If I tell you, can you keep it from the rest of the fam? I...I don't want them to have to deal with this stuff."

That was new, Jack thought, but he kept it to himself and nodded. He felt lucky she was willing at all, and in that distance was suddenly hit by the fact that it could have been hundreds of years since she saw him last.

That feeling was only worsened by the weak smile she gave him as thanks. "Well, it all started when I met this woman masquerading as a welcome robot..."

Jack got the distinct feeling that the Doctor was only giving him the broad outlines of the situation - met Missy, tried to help her - even travelled with the mass-murdering lunatic for awhile! - and it didn't work out. And now the Master was back with another face, going merrily slaughtering on his way once again.

"...And he wants to kill me more than ever. So, yeah," the Doctor said, shrugging off the whole account. "That's...pretty much the whole sitch."

"That sounds awful," Jack said slowly, trying his best to keep the resentment from swelling in his chest when he thought back to what the Master had done to him - not just to him, but to Martha's family, and to Earth, the place the Doctor supposedly loved above all else...

She was watching him, a deeply tired look on her face. "I'm really, really sorry, Jack. Last time, it didn't start out like that, I promise you. It was just business as usual. Then she acted like she really - really wanted to change. And I wanted to believe it as much as..." She cut off, not letting herself finish. Her hands clamped tighter around her arms. "I just don't know what else to do. I've tried pleading, reasoning, helping, forgiving... Nothing works."

"Doctor..."

"What more could I have done?" she said, though it sounded like she was talking more to herself. "I forgave her trying to get me to kill my own friend, one of the best friends I ever had. I held vigil over her body for a thousand years."

"No, Doctor, listen-"

"Is it because I play the game? Because I liked tangling with him, matching wits? Because I've fought back and stopped him? How different are we, really?"

"No, Doctor." He grasped her by the shoulders and turned her to face him, letting go as soon as she met his eyes. "You listen to me. Defending yourself and your friends does not make you as bad as the person trying to kill all of you, and if he ever tells you as much, you tell him from me: that's a shitty little gaslighting head game, and it won't fly. He's been nothing but a murderous terror to you since you returned, how could you possibly think there's no difference between you?"

"Jack-"

"I can't tell you how to view your... history together, but I can tell you something about the present: you don't owe anything to someone who does nothing but spit on you and betray you. If he wants your friendship, he should act like your friend. And that - that's all there is to it." He stopped, clearing his throat awkwardly at the wide-eyed look she was giving him. "You might not always make the right call, Doctor - and I've been there once or twice, trust me - but there's a big, big difference between someone who spends all their time trying to help people and someone who runs around murdering people for fun." Jack couldn't contain his bitterness by the end, practically spitting the last word. He was almost shaking with anger, partly from remembering back to how the Master had tortured him - he'd done well to move on from it, he had to give himself that - and partly from the thought of what he'd done to the Doctor.

But maybe most of all, from that baffled look she had on his face, like she didn't quite understand how he was so angry at what the Master had gone.

Like she had just accepted it was business as usual.

No wonder she looked so damned exhausted.

She turned away, leaning back against the console. "Yeah. Yeah, I...get what you're saying," she said, sounding completely unconvincing. "I just...I'm not sure what to do next. He's just broken, in a different way than when you knew him."

"And it isn't your job to try and fix him, Doctor."

She carried on as though he'd never spoken. "Back then, he still wanted to survive. He was still driven to. But now, I don't think he even cares that much. He wants to be killed. He wants me to kill him." She turned to him, brown-green eyes grieved. "I just don't see a way for this to end well."

Jack shook his head, thinking. "Then maybe you should try something different."

She raised an eyebrow with an expectant look. He was sure he saw a hint of desperation in her eye. "Like what?"

"Don't play his game anymore. Treat him like any other enemy who's trying to hurt you. Draw a line in the sand and tell him if he crosses you, he's done."

"Give him what he wants? Sink to his level?"

"Doctor, I told you once - protecting yourself and others from his lunacy is not 'sinking to his level'. I know you - you'd rather not, if you could avoid it...but like I said, there's a difference. If sending him to his grave thinking he's won some sort of twisted victory over you is the cost, I'd take it. Otherwise, how do you ever hope to stop him?"

She opened her mouth and closed it again, the weight of her sadness so apparent he almost went to hug her again. He settled for grasping her shoulder and gently rubbing it with her thumb. "And if you're still having trouble," he said, softly and with the best cavalier smile he could manage, "Give me a call. I don't have any qualms about sticking it to him."

She chuckled softly before brushing his hand away. "Thanks, but that's OK. I need to handle this one myself."

He wanted to protest, but she suddenly tipped forward and rested her head against his shoulder. Her shoulders heaved in a deep sigh. Jack stood there, embarrassed to feel the sting of his old crush rearing its head again. But he hoped more than he hoped for anything else that his words had gotten through to the Doctor.

"What is that you think is worth saving there?" he mumbled softly. She shook her head and said nothing for a long, long moment. In the end, she never did answer him.

But he had the awful sinking feeling maybe she didn't think there was anything.

She just wanted to save him anyway.