Here is chapter 2. It took me a shorter amount of time to rewrite this one, but hopefully it was worth it. This chapter sets up for the episode/Christmas Special, The Next Doctor.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!
Little Jack is walking down a city street, and he glances around the road trying to figure out where he is. Looking down at his feet, Jack notices that the road is made of dirt. The buildings surrounding him are made of brick and wood. They all look funny to him; not any current style that he has ever seen before. A metal clanging upon a hard surface causes Jack to spin around, as he searches for where the sound is coming from.
Cautiously, Jack walks around a corner and sees these men made of metal, breaking into a house. He hears screaming coming from inside of the home, and watches as the metal men come out with a little boy. As the metal men walk away, one of them turn and looks right at Jack. Jack stays still, not sure what to do and wishes that his father was here to help. Then the metal man points his hand at him and says one word.
"Delete."
Jack watches in slow motion as a red light comes from the hand and heads towards at him. Jack's only thought is of one thing. So he screams for his mother.
Inside the Tardis…
The Tardis feels that something was wrong in the little Jacks' room. He is squirming and sweating in his sleep. So much so that he has his bedding wrapped around his little body. She waits to see if the dream will pass, but when his mind projects out his fear, she quickly wakes the Doctor.
The Doctor has been lying down his eyes closed but he was awake none-the-less. His mind was looking through the time streams to make sure all was well. As he watches his sons' time-line, he feels the Tardis invade his mind. The Tardis is concerned about Jack, and before the Doctor cans ask why, he hears a cry filled with feral fear. He recognizes his son's voice, and quickly climbs out of bed.
"Mummy!" Jack's screams from his bedroom, still coming out of his horrible nightmare.
Rose, who had been asleep beside the Doctor, wakes with a start as the Tardis brushes against her mind rather forcefully. Her eyes fly open, and she sits up with a start. Blinking her the sleep from her eyes, Rose starts to get out of bed and begins searching for something to put on.
The Doctor, who has already bolted out of bed before Rose, pulls on his red dressing gown and is tying the belt at his waist. Making sure that the belt is secure, he runs out their bedroom door. In a dead run, the Doctor makes his way down a hallway that will lead him to Jack's bedroom. Behind him, he can hear the fast moving footsteps of Rose. Somehow she had managed to put on the shirt that he had worn the day before.
Jenny, who had also heard her brothers' cry, immediately gets up out of bed. Not caring how disheveled she looks, she heads out of her room. As she steps out, Jenny nearly bumps into her dad.
"Sorry, dad."
"I got this; go back to bed." The Doctor tells her as he takes hold of the door handle to Jacks' room.
"You sure?"
"Yes. Now if you would please..."
"Okay dad." Jenny steps back into her room and closes her door. However, she stays right next to it, just in case if the Doctor can't calm Jack down.
The Doctor opens Jacks' door and walks into the bedroom. His hearts nearly break at the sight of his son in tears. Moving quickly, the Doctor makes his way to the bed and sits down next to Jack. The little boy is curled up in a fetal position and gasping for breath between each heavy sob. Tentatively, the Doctor reaches out and gently brushes some of the boy's brown fringe from his sweat covered forehead.
"Jack. You're safe, son." The Doctor whispers softly to the crying boy. "It's alright. You're okay."
Rose is standing at the door, watching the Doctor as he tries to comfort their son. She doesn't say a word or even step in to interfere with the small scene in front of her. As the Doctor gently lifts Jack from the bed and holds the boy to his chest, Rose lets a small smile appear on her face. She is happy to see that the Doctor has come out of his shell that he tries to keep up while around people. Oh he is fine showing emotions to his companions and family, but around others he keeps his emotions under wraps. Unless provoked into a confrontation, of course.
At hearing the sound of the Doctors' hearts against his ears, Jack's sobbing starts to ease up. Looking up to his father's face, Jack opens his eyes to see the same colored eyes as his own looking down at him.
"Daddy!" sniffles Jack as he tries to wedge his body in closer to the Doctor's chest.
"I'm here. So is Mum." replies the Doctor as he allows his arms to hold tight to the small, shivering body of his son.
"What's wrong, Jack? Have a bad dream?" Rose had quietly made her way over to the Doctor and Jack when neither one was paying attention. Sitting down next to the Doctor, Rose begins to rub her sons' back, trying to give him some kind of comfort as well.
Jack nods his head and lets out a shaky breath as the tears keep falling down his cheeks.
"What kind of bad dream?" The Doctor asks and feels Jacks' body stiffen up in his arms. "Tell you what. You tell me what happened in that dream, and I'll chase the nasty nightmare away."
Jack blinks his eyes as he keeps looking up at the Doctor. Giving him a skeptical look, Jack takes a deep breath before speaking.
"Won't help. They always come back." whispers Jack before burying his face into the Doctor' robe covered chest.
"Not if they meet me. I'm the one who gives nightmares to the nightmares. Trust me, your mum knows all about it. Had to save her from her own nightmares as well."
Jack looks over to Rose, and his mother simply nods her head, agreeing with his dad. Jack then looks back up at the Doctor and begins to talk about his dream. As Jack gets to the part about the Metal men, Rose and the Doctor share a look between them. They knew what those metal men are really called, and to learn that they are appearing in their son's dream has them feeling nervous. After the next part of the dream is told, their hearts just about stop. The metal men in the dream had tried to kill their son.
"It was just a dream, Jack. Now, why don't I put up some mental blocks so you won't have them again tonight, okay?" The Doctor looks at his son, waiting for permission to proceed with putting up the mental blocks.
Jack simply nods his head and closes his eyes, waiting for the Doctor to begin. He tries hard not to gasp out as the Doctor touches his temples to open a mental bridge between the two of them. Then Jack begins to feel his dad building the walls around where his bad dream originated from.
After only a minute, the Doctor completes this task, but makes a mental note to speak with the Tardis about this incident. He knows that Jack is part Time Lord, part human but just how much Time Lord is Jack.
"There all done." says the Doctor as he removes his hands from Jack's face.
"Can I sleep with you?" asks Jack as he reaches out for Rose.
Rose glances over to the Doctor with a questioning look on her face. She isn't sure if the Doctor will say yes to their son's request, but at seeing him smiling at her lets her know that he is okay with it.
"Why not, little love."
Letting Jack climb into her arms, Rose makes sure that she has a good hold of her son before rising up from the bed. Slowly, she makes her way out of Jacks' bedroom and walks down the corridor till she reaches their bedroom.
The Doctor, who is right behind her, opens the door for her to enter their room. Upon entering the room, the Doctor walks over to his side of the bed and reaches out to take Jack from Rose. Rose hesitates at first, due to the fact that Jack has fallen asleep in her arms, but knows that the Doctor means well.
"Like father, like son." she whispers to the Doctor as she allows him to take Jack from her arms.
Very carefully he places Jack in the middle of their bed, and once Jack is settled in Rose slides into the bed from her side. Gently she pulls the bedding up so that her and Jack are mostly covered.
"Doctor?"
"Hhhmm?" The Doctor has been so focused on watching his son sleep that he hasn't noticed that Rose was now in bed again.
"Why did Jack dream of the Cybermen?"
"Don't know, but I think he may have seen a time line. The buildings he described sounds like something from the mid-1800s. But why Cybermen might be there, I don't know."
"You think we should try to check it out tomorrow? I mean if he did see a time line, then wouldn't it suggest that he saw a glimpse of the future? You and I could check it out while leaving Jenny and Jack in the Tardis." Rose says softly while trying hard not to wake up their son.
"Maybe. But for now get some sleep, Rose." The Doctor leans over their son and places a kiss on Rose's lips. "I have some things to take care of, and I have slept enough for tonight."
"Alright. Night, Doctor." Rose gives the Doctor a sleepy smile before laying her head down on her pillow. Within a minute or two, she is fast asleep with an arm curled protectively over Jack's sleeping body.
The Doctor watches as Rose and Jack sleep, and begins to think about what he should do. Should he take his family into possible danger if he sends them in time to where Jack's vision had shown the boy? Then again, if he doesn't go and check it out will he be condemning many innocent people to death?
'He is your son, thief. The offspring of you and our wolf. Of course he will get glimpses of time streams.' The Tardis whispers into the Doctor's mind. 'His future is forever bending and changing like the wolf's. You must trust in his abilities, my thief, for he will need your guidance.'
Kind of left the end of this chapter on an unknown bit. Before working on this rewrite, I noticed that I left out some plots and left some unanswered. So with this rewrite most of those plot holes will be filled and some new plots will be revealed to help build up to the third story for this series, which will involve the Eleventh Doctor and his family.
Reviews are welcomed and cherished.
Selene