Chapter 3
Captain Jack Harkness
Captain Jack sent his "younger sister" home by cab, telling her to get home and rest.
He had explained to Rose that Mickey and Martha were his friends, and after another round of thank you's Rose left.
Jack was left with Mickey and Martha, whom he knew both where anxiously waiting for an explanation, and boy, where they going to be disappointed.
"I'm several centuries ahead of you guys, this is actually the longest I've been here since... well quite a while." They were in the small garden, Mickey had gotten them tea and they were enjoying the sunset.
They had turned on small fairy lights, it was one of those rare days where the sun had been out.
"i'm guessing you can't tell us much because it has yet to happen?" asked Martha, Jack nodded.
"What happened to her?" Mickey asked quickly followed with "Why doesn't she remember us?"
"Since when have you known?" Martha asked without giving him time to answer, "why didn't you answer your phone?"
Jack smiled "let me start from the beginning."
-2.5 months earlier Captain Jack Harkness's linear time.-
He had tried reaching the Doctor and Rose at first.
Knowing that the only other people who would be able to understand his pain would be them. Knowing that Rose would be able to heal him as she did the Doctor.
When that failed, Jack came to be in a very bad place. He had died innumerable times and in innumerable ways. Yet the pain of what he had lost, the pain of the the people he had failed was even greater and suffocating.
He had tried everything to forget from falling into the arms of many lovers to falling into many types of substances the universe had to offer, none would help. He got into the wrong crowd both on purpose and by mistake.
When he was at his lowest, he had his first moment of clarity, moments away from his most recent death he saw Two words, that gave him hope.
Bad Wolf.
Then he blacked out and died. When he came to, he was in a hotel room his clothes had been changed and for the first time in a long while he was clean. He felt no urge to look for a substance to erase the pain. Not that the pain was gone but that it had become manageable.
On the nightstand with a flashing light that drew his attention announced he had a message.
The phone number he recognize immediately, Rose's, the message contained, Coordinates, a time and date, nothing else.
Of course after the shock wore off anger arose. Where were they when he had needed them? Did they really think he would drop everything, after being abandoned.
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, which worked as he realized that Rose wouldn't have done it, not that she wasn't smart enough but that she would have at least started the message with a hello! she would have answered her phone, leading him to conclude that once again the Doctor had left him behind until he was needed.
Deciding he would have a talk with the doctor about friendship etiquette. he stuffed the phone into his pocket and walked out of the room.
Unfortunately he had no way of getting to those coordinates, his Vortex Manipulator had been lost, for quite a long time.
Making his way out of the facility which he recognized, he was walking by the receptionist desk when he was called out.
"Captain Harkness?" he turned around the receptionist was pink with long flaming red hair it's eyes were completely black, their species, Karuna, where gender-less and their species where asexual their children born from a sacred tree.
The receptionist was wearing the customary white long robe.
Their home planet, Orlea, was known for its rehabilitation center able to cure a person within hours.
"Yes?" Jack answered confused
"your patron left you a package" Jack was even more confused taking the offered package or better described as luggage. Jack left the center and stood outside before opening it.
A brand new Vortex Manipulator, with papers and id's for him, clothing as well. Confused he placed the VM on his wrist, typed in the coordinates before he hesitated.
He shrugged, trap or not if they had Rose's number then she is in trouble. But if it's not a trap and there is no trouble then the Doctor and him will be having a very unpleasant chat of cherishing friendships.
Pushing the button he felt the now slightly unfamiliar sensation of having his molecules traveling beyond speed of light for one millionth of a second before appearing in an airport bathroom.
~Present time~
"Rose spotted me first calling me her brother, soon getting angry at me for calling her Rose. I thought it was some sort of cover and that the Doctor would soon be joining us or we would soon be joining him, instead we get in her car, and soon we are getting into her apartment all the while she is talking never mentioning aliens or the Doctor or anything. I keep hoping it's just a cover.
"I get in the guest room and that's it, the next day. She apologizes as she insist she has to get to her job and leaves. I keep expecting the Doctor to show up laughing at the joke, but before i know it, Rose comes back at five she starts making dinner. Talking about how when we were kids this and that."
"Did you try to breach the subject?" Martha asked.
"I tried asking her, her response ranged from 'what movie is that?' and "are you sure it wasn't a book" before completely changing the topic."
Mickey and Martha looked at each other, whatever they were thinking it seems Mickey was asking Martha to say it. She grabbed Mickey's hand before asking.
"Could it be the same thing that happened to Donna?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, there is this thing that happens every night while Rose is sleeping I didn't see it until a week after we started living together. We were in a park, you guys remember the Atraxi problem?"
Mickey and Martha nodded.
"that was the first night i witness Rose glowing, the next morning Rose remember nothing of the incident."
"Is the glowing causing her to forget?" asked Mickey
"I don't know, see thing is she had gotten injured a small cut nothing serious. the next day it disappeared. I decided to wait until she had fallen asleep and sneaked into her room read her vitals in the Vortex Manipulator, made sure there was nothing wrong checked for alien technology but nothing out of the norm showed up. the glowing seems to be like nano genes but pure energy and not man made. but it seems to be fighting something within her.
"There seems to be something else going inside of her because every night she glows as if her body is trying to fight something, perhaps its whatever is blocking her real memories."
"Do you think the Doctor did it to save her?"
"I don't know sometimes i think he lead me to Rose so that i could protect her, but why me and not him he has a time machine he loves her why would he live Rose behind?" silence followed. Martha, Mickey and Jack sat quietly thinking
"perhaps it was not willingly?" Martha eventually broke the silence. "Rose glowed momentarily." Martha continued.
Jack made a confused expression before asking "When? Where?"
Mickey explained in details what he saw earlier that day.
"That's different." he couldn't help but frown
"i gather she hasn't done that before?" Martha asked
"Not during the day. No. always during the night and always at the same time."
"What do you mean she glows at the same time at night. Is she an alarm clock? humans don't glow!" Mickey finally snapped martha gripped his hand silently asking him to calm down.
"So this is something new, something recent?" Martha asked, before shaking her head, she was trying to find a better way to phrase it but unable to to do so she asked "What do you believe it is?"
"As far as i know she didn't glow while i traveled in the Tardis." Jack responded. he saw Mickey also nod in affirmation. "But... there was one moment she did..."
They both gave him an incredulous look.
"When?"
"I didn't see it personally, after i was left behind in the future i looked at security cameras trying to figure what had happened. I saw rose glowing i heard the Doctor called it the Time Vortex. Rose opened the heart of the Tardis and it seems for one moment they became a being called Bad Wolf.
"But she's human," Mickey said exasperated. "Human!."
Jack smiled, "She looked into the heart of the Tardis and the Tardis looked into hers. and everything she did was human. The Doctor said this to me when i asked how i became immortal."
"Now that we have established that her glowing is not negatively affecting her," martha continued trying to keep the group focused on the problem in hand. "A new question arises, why did the Doctor leave Rose behind with that kind of power with just Jack as defense? No offense Jack.
"None taken beautiful." Jack said with a wink. He could easily see why the Doctor had taken Martha and Mickey as companions, always asking the right questions, or at least the questions that needed answering. "That is what i have been investigating, while watching out for Rose."
"Nice watching out, since i found her unconscious in the alleyway." Jack winced at Mickey reprimanding tone but watched as Martha sent Mickey a glare, causing Mickey to pout.
"I was actually following a lead on the Doctor. I was investigating the a little town called Leadworth or something. Not only was it the epicenter of the Atraxi it's also been reported that the Doctor showed up three times, i was planning to set up camp. But didn't want to leave Rose alone for too long and now i'm just glad you guys are in the know." he crossed his arms time to get to the point. "If you guys are willing i need your help."
Mickey and Martha nodded without hesitation what ever was going on involved their closest and dearest friends, Rose and the Doctor."Anything"
"I need to watch over Rose i can't keep leaving her behind, you guys need to track the the doctor" lifting his sleeve he showed them his vortex manipulator, before removing it and handing it over to Mickey and Martha. Before they were able to grab it he spoke. "I don't know how long it may take us, or where, this is something big and dangerous, you two probably won't be able to come back here for a while or worse you may die."
Martha and Mickey looked at each other, before nodding. "They need our help, we need to get to the bottom of this, and besides," she bumped Mickey shoulder with her shoulder. "Us Smith's are strong, because we are a team."
Mickey and Martha smiled at each other.
"Aw, you guys are so sweet." jack said
With a slight roll of her eyes, Martha reach out taking the Vortex manipulator.
all joking aside Jack watched them, he knew both would be able to take on whatever laid ahead of them and figure out what was wrong with Rose, what was caused her memories to fade. He went into his pockets he might have something for it.
After arriving at Rose house he had unpacked his clothing and had found that most of his jacket's pockets had been enlarged, reaching deep down he watched Martha and Mickey smile as they realized he had the larger in the inside pockets.
He pulled out some glasses and handed it to Mickey and Martha.
"this are cameras for your eyes whatever you see will be taped." He pointed to the vortex manipulator, "the cameras are connected to that, for easy and quick viewing. It's church proofed as well."
"Church?"
Jack nodded, "out of space church i lost several years and made me paranoid now i carry them took me a while to find the perfect glass and frames. Once you place them on, the Vortex Manipulator will be connected to you, it will monitor your heartbeat, the moment is sense sudden changes it will beep,"
"You will need to play it back and one of you will have to describe what is happening to the other and vice versa." taking a deeper breath he continued. "I'm sure there is a more efficient way to do this, but we don't even know what we are fighting against to begin with and the only person i would trust in this type of situation would be the Doctor but-"
"The Doctor's not taking calls and we can't just go around asking people to risk their lives," Said Mickey as he too forgot all about the food.
"Sorry i just gave you guys a hard job but there might be a reason why the Doctor wants me by her side. Hence why i was doing this alone, but since you guys are offering... I want you guys to search for the Doctor while i keep an eye on Rose." Jack said while running a hand through his hair.
"You should have come to us sooner, but what is done is done. we should contact each other once a week." Martha laid out a plan of comunication
They continued talking into the night hashing out details.
Jack went home early in the morning opened Rose's bedroom door to check on her.
Only to find an empty bed.
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(A/N tell me if it gets too confusing, also keep in mind they don't have the all the facts so its all speculation on their part... and yes my updates are widely inconsistent i get pretty busy.)