Nomad Chapter 5, a doctor who fanfic

This one took a while, mostly because I am a perfectionist and there was a lot to cram in. This chapter and the one that will follow it were originally going to be one big one, but it was getting way too massive and hard to follow that way, so I split it in two. This chapter, copious amounts of Jack abuse. Next chapter, much more mellow ;) Anyway, enough babbling!

- Roughly 3,000 Years Earlier -

"There is a child sleeping near his twin,

The pictures go wild in a rush of wind,

The dark angel he is shuffling in,

Watching over them with his black feather wings unfurled,

The love you lost with the skin so fair

Is free with the wind in her butterscotch hair…"

She had spent the first ten minutes simply wandering the vast interior of the TARDIS, and The Doctor had indulged her. It had been feeling more empty than it ever had before lately, he didn't mind answering her hundreds of clever questions, Fayden could tell. Finally though, they arrived at their intended destination, on top of a cozy little rift in Cardiff on early 21st Century Earth.

"These feel strange," Fayden complained, entering the massive console room. She was wearing her usual tight brown leather jacket, but she'd removed many of the buckles and chains and sundry, and was keeping her familiar corset hidden underneath. She'd kept her knee-high brown leather boots on, but instead of the matching leather pants, she was wearing a pair of blue jeans.

"You know," The Doctor mused, looking at her, "This may be the first time a traveling mate of mine has had to dress down for a trip back to Earth." Fayden frowned.

"I don't look too alien though, right?" She asked, worried. Not that she was self conscious about looking different, of course, but she'd really rather not attract too much attention in a new place. It was outside of her nature and on most planets, she'd never had to worry. The Doctor laughed,

"Not at all, you look brilliant!" He assured her, looking intently into one of the screens around the console, "The hair is a bit notable, but everyone loves a free spirit these days." Fayden tugged on her waist-length dreadlocks fondly. She'd taken a lot of the baubles out of them as well, leaving a bead here and there, "Fresh as this century is, I'm afraid it's a bit boring as far as fashions go. Everyone's trying to out-bore each other." He looked at her again, frowning, "Fay, leave the gun."

Fayden looked down at the gun she'd strapped to her hip, "What, people don't carry guns?" The Doctor sighed.

"In this year, Earth is still a class 5 planet," He reminded her. "So peaceful. Aside from the occasional war with themselves. Civilians don't just go 'round…with a gun."

"Can you promise me that nothing non-human will shoot at me here?" Fayden asked, eyebrows raised. He shut his mouth. She grinned, taking the holster off of her thigh and tucking her gun into the back of her jeans, "That's what I thought."

"Oh fine then," The Doctor sighed again, this time loudly and dramatically, "You humans and your need for firepower. You'll fit in wonderfully with the Torchwood lot, at any rate." He was still watching the screens, not making a move to leave the TARDIS. Fayden shifted, from one foot to the other, arms crossed.

"So, we're here…" She said slowly. The Doctor smirked.

"Sorry, just…making sure my associate on the ground got my message." He assured her, "But yes, we're here! I'll be catching up with some old friends, don't worry, they'll be the best sort to show you around town."

"Was a bit wary about being an extra wheel," Fayden admitted, and The Doctor shook his head.

"Not at all!" He said brightly, "I hardly ever get to show off Earth! Well, my current Earth. Even more rare that I can say I've this many friends in one place at one time. They'll eat you up. Aha!" He suddenly cried, pointing to the screen, "There she is!" Fayden hurried up to the console, looking where he pointed. The screen was a view of the outside, and standing on the concrete, arms crossed, a smirk on her face, was a very pretty black woman dressed all in grey and black leather.

"I so could have kept my leather pants on," Fayden pouted, as The Doctor pulled her toward the doors.

"She's a soldier," He sighed, "You're Xena: Warrior Princess." He was greeted with a blank stare, "Er. Character from a 20th century television show."

"Can I meet her?"

"Not today."

"Hullo, Doctor!" He was greeted brightly as soon as he stepped outside of the TARDIS. Caught up in a tight hug, The Doctor laughed.

"Martha Jones, the legend herself!" He exclaimed, and Martha stepped back, shaking her head.

"It's Martha Milligan now." She grinned, holding up her left hand to display the gold band which now joined her diamond. "Would have sent you an invite but, well, we sort of eloped as soon as we were back together, after the whole…planet kidnapping ordeal."

"Brilliant," The Doctor said genuinely, "Nothing like the end of the world to remind you of what's important."

"Exactly," Martha looked over his shoulder, "And who's this?"

Fayden had been completely distracted, looking at her surroundings in awe. The bright blue sky, the fountain just over their heads, the fact that the air smelled so clean (to her), that the buildings were so small, that the transports were so antique. She looked back with dazzled eyes toward the pair when she realized she was being spoken of, and smiled politely.

"Martha Milligan," The Doctor introduced formally, "Meet Captain Fayden Amorisha. Fay's an old friend of myself and Rose's from the 51st Century." He said by way of introduction, as the two women shook hands. Martha was trying not to let it show, just how impressed she was by Fayden's six feet of height.

"I was homeless when I was 22," Fayden added, "They bought me breakfast and a spaceship."

"Sounds exactly like him!" Martha laughed, "I was a med student, he took me for a little trip, I ended up saving the universe and all of existence a few times."

"That's the severely abridged version of events," The Doctor coughed, "So where's Jack? Mickey? Gwenny-Gwen? The pretty boy Jack was going on about last time?"

"Oi," Martha sighed heavily, "You picked a hell of a day to drop in, Doctor. Jack definitely would have been the first one here, but he and Gwen are off at a loony bin, looking up a former resident. Mickey's on a touchy errand as well, related. I just finished up an autopsy, started to run as soon as I caught your signal."

"Nothing serious going on, is it?" The Doctor frowned, but Martha shook her head,

"Nah doesn't seem it," She assured him, "Just an idiot who's causing trouble. He just happens to be a really fast idiot who knows a lot about aliens."

"The worst kind of idiot…" The Doctor mused, and Fayden frowned.

"I thought first contact didn't happen on Earth until the year…" She was cut short by The Doctor reaching out and covering her mouth. "Oh, right, sorry…"

"You're right though, regarding 'proper' first contact." He nodded, "Your schoolbooks haven't been rewritten on that point…yet. But aliens have always been coming here in small bits," He smirked, "Usually the homeless ones. Or the ones with engine trouble."

"Or the criminals," Martha laughed, "But come on to the pub!" She started walking, waving for them to follow her, "They might be a little late, but no one's forgotten our lunch date." She assured them, as Fayden kept glancing all around, drinking in the air of her mother planet, "And then to the hub. Seeing as how you're our favorite person in the galaxy, we'll be giving you the full Torchwood experience."

"I hope it's better than my last one," The Doctor murmured.

Martha led them to an old fashioned little pub by the water, which absolutely fascinated Fayden. She was practically gleeful, looking at the old photographs and sports equipment and trophies hanging on the walls. "Paper photographs!" She grinned, "I saw them once in a museum, but out in the open? Things change so much…" She glanced at the ancient cricket bat mounted on the wall above their heads, "Well, some things."

Martha filled them in on the details of her little wedding, which Fayden also found fascinating. They talked about her life in Cardiff, and how much she enjoyed the more maverick atmosphere of working for Jack's Torchwood as opposed to UNIT. Then Fayden had to have the two establishments explained to her, which led to even more lively conversation. All in all, Fayden was finding herself enjoying the 21st Century immensely. The Doctor was clearly pleased that she did not feel like a tag-along, either. But then, he'd always chosen his traveling companions well. Of course they would get along.

Not long after they arrived, Mickey Smith came in with Gwen Cooper close behind, and more introductions were made. Gwen was glad to finally meet The Doctor in the flesh, informing him that his other old friend would be along shortly, once the SUV was parked, and Mickey apparently knew him from a ways back.

"Nice knots!" He told Fayden as he was sitting down beside The Doctor, across from her. He shook her hand, "Where'd he pick you up, then?"

"51st Century," Fayden repeated, grinning. She had a fondness for blunt blokes, "Met him and Rose a few years back, ran into him again yesterday."

"Good ol' Rose," Mickey murmured, and everyone at that table nodded. Fayden was intrigued,

"You all know her, then?" She asked, while The Doctor made a point of looking at the front doors of the pub, as opposed to anyone at the table. Martha grinned.

"Either personally, or by reputation," She explained. At Mickey's right, Gwen nodded again.

"I've only seen her, once." She added, "But Jack talks about her like she was a saint."

"I was just some homeless girl trying to rob her," Fayden elaborated, "And she bought me breakfast, and slipped a fair bit of money into my pocket," She grinned, "Now I'm the owner of my own shipping company in the Isop Galaxy."

Martha tilted her head then, curious, "Isop?" She said, "That rings a bell." Suddenly, The Doctor wasn't looking at the front of the pub anymore. Fayden shrugged,

"It's been populated by sentient beings longer than any galaxy in the known universe," She explained, "I'm not surprised you've heard of it, even here. I'm from Robeck, grew up on The Boeshane Peninsula."

The Doctor and Martha locked eyes then, both having the same thought at the same time. "51st Century…Um, Fayden?" The Doctor asked, casually, "How well did you know your neighbors, growing up?"

Fayden looked perplexed, but was about to answer him when a chipper voice from the front of the pub interrupted her . "Sorry I'm late Doctor, chasing lunatics across Cardiff, you know how it goes!"

"Jack!" The Doctor stood up, receiving a warm hug from the man who'd just breezed in. "Good to see you. Have you gotten younger?" In her seat, Fayden was frozen stiff. Martha turned, looking at her, and then at Jack, and then back at the numb, motionless state of her expression.

"Very funny," Jack Harkness laughed, turning to survey the table, "Well, if everyone's here…" He stopped short when his eyes fell on the blonde who sat next to Martha, across from Mickey and Gwen. He almost didn't recognize her, didn't believe it. But there was that height, those cheekbones, those amazing, ice-colored eyes. The Doctor was also watching his companion, warily, as if she were a wild animal who could leap at any moment. Jack and Fayden stared at each other in silence for a long moment, until Mickey cleared his throat, loudly. Jack blinked, letting out the deep breath he'd been holding. "Fay…?"

She stood, slowly, edging around Martha, not taking her eyes off of him. "He…um," She swallowed, "He called you Jack?" Jack nodded, licking his lips. "You changed your name?" Her forehead creased in confusion, and Jack looked, to his friends' amazement, chastised.

"I did," He murmured apologetically, as she stepped closer. His eyes were damp, and a smile was fighting its way onto his face, "You're really here…"

Fayden snapped. Before she knew it, she was seeing white. A split second later, her knuckles were burning and Jack was staggering backwards from her blow to his jaw. She stomped out of the pub without another word, the doors slamming violently against the walls in her wake.

There were crumbled bits of paper all over the bed by the time he was through reading. She knew he hadn't meant to mangle the last written words of his beloved mother, it was just that his hands had been shaking so badly since the first one, with the occasional frantic clutching, hasty wiping of eyes, wet fingers smudging cheap ink. Now the letters were done and read, and scattered all around them. Fayden was sitting on the end of the bed, with his head in her gold-covered lap. She'd toed off her uncomfortably foreign and high gold heels sometime in the middle of the fourth letter, and was now wriggling her toes against the thick, new-ish carpet of his flat.

"What did she look like, before…?" He trailed off softly, turning the last piece of paper in his hands. Without a conscious effort, she started running her small, slim fingers through his hair in a comforting, motherly gesture. His eyes were staring up at her, studying her jaw line. Fayden was studying the city, the transports buzzing by his windows.

"Beautiful," She was quick to assure him, earnestly, "A bit older than you probably remember her…and she was very pale, those last days. But aside from her complexion, you'd never guess that…" Fayden swallowed, "Your mum was always beautiful."

"That she was," He agreed, reaching about, picking up the other letters and putting them into an awkward, crumpled stack. He set them on the floor, "Thank you for looking after her, kid…"

"We were the only ones left," Fayden said quickly, quietly, her young eyes still transfixed by the city, "She looked after me. I looked after her…" Her words dwindled to a whisper, as she felt his fingers ghosting across her collar bone, a whole new set of senses seeming to flip on like a switch.

That strange feeling was back, low in her stomach, that she'd felt when she'd first come close to him. Of course she wasn't daft, she knew what it was. She'd simply never really had the chance to feel…aware of this, of this part of her. Hell she'd barely had any male sentient beings to even talk to, not since she was fourteen. And when she had…she'd been taking care of things. Working, supporting her own mother, mourning her father. No time to realize that she was just barely not a child anymore, no sense that she was indeed very appealing and that the boy…man…older brother of her long-gone playmate…would see her and think that she was lovely. In her head she was awkwardly tall and boney, rough-handed, a scarecrow in a pretty outfit…he was only 22 but he felt so, so much older than her in this moment…her eyes slid shut and her breath hitched, as he turned his head and pressed his lips against her abdomen, through her dress.

He shifted, sitting up, and the bed moved and through a thick blanket of sensory overload Fayden almost felt it. She opened her eyes slowly and found that he was facing her, that his face was very, very close to hers, his breathing heavy and uneven. His eyes were burning - not the same careless, flippant burn she'd seen him tossing about at the club when he didn't know he was being watched, either. Naïve though she might have been, she knew without a doubt that she was seeing much, much more of him now through his eyes…burning blue eyes, still red from shedding tears over his mother, looking into her and burning his way through her.

Fayden felt that she should say something, opening her mouth and finding nothing. But in the instant that her lips parted, his mouth was on hers, warm, insistent and almost frantic. Her frame went slack, and though she'd never done so before she found herself responding, kissing him back, reaching out and clutching fistfuls of his shirt. He pulled back, only to continue trailing kisses down her throat, making her gasp out loud. Her breath was in his ear, whispering his name in a tone that was entirely, pleasantly surprised at this new sensation. For the first time since they'd hailed a cab Fayden heard his soft chuckle, now warm against her skin.

"You are beautiful," He murmured appreciatively, moving his lips from her neck to her collar bone, wrapping his arm around her, his fingers sliding gently along her spine above the back of her dress. She let out another surprised, breathy sound as she looked down at him, his lips just brushing the top of her moderately low neckline. His fingers had found the hook-and-eye closures that did up her little gold dress from Boeshane, playing with them, until he finally tore his lips away from their tantalizing exploration of her chest to look her in the eyes again. They regarded each other, the heavy-lidded, emotionally raw Time Agent and the wide-eyed, flushed and thoroughly turned on (for the first time) teenager.

"I want you," He informed her in a whisper, a bit too exposed for his usual suggestive charm. His eyes were still burning, but in them she still saw the person she knew, and that person, she knew, would still leave her alone if that was what she wanted.

Fayden swallowed, trying to think of some response. How did a person respond? She'd never wanted anyone before, not like this. And as far as she knew, no one had wanted her either. What sort of thing was right to say? And what ruined such moments? And was she taking too long to answer? That was the thought that propelled her forward, across the miniscule space between them, locking her lips to his, wrapping her trembling arms around his neck. He kissed her back hungrily, like a man desperate, and his clever fingers started unhooking the closures one at a time without trouble.

"I've never…" She pulled back only slightly, her breath mingling with his, "I mean I want to," Her voice was shaking, "But you should know I…" He stilled her nerves with another long, slow kiss, as he finished with the row of hooks and pressed his hands against her bare back.

"It's all right," He whispered when they pulled apart again, "I still want you. I don't…want to be alone." She knew a confession when she heard one, and her hands clutched at his shirt again, over his shoulders, "You tell me though, if you don't…" Fayden followed his example, and cut him off with a kiss, distantly proud of herself for catching on so quickly. This would be a handy talent as things progressed, and at that thought, she blushed all over again. He made a low, pleased growl somewhere deep in his throat, and started tugging her little party dress off of her shoulders.

Fayden pulled away then, to help him be rid of the pesky thing. He grinned as she scooted backwards on the bed, not taking his eyes off of her and her nervous grin. He pulled the dress all the way down her long legs, off her ankles, and let it fall to the floor somewhere over his shoulder. Fayden was resting back on her elbows, naked but for a pair of plain white knickers, her long hair mussed and her eyes wide, fixed on him. For a moment he just stood at the end of the bed and looked at her, all flawless, untouched skin and awkwardly pretty, adolescent angles, and wondered just what level of hell this could send him too. Fearing some sort of rejection in his hesitation, Fayden swallowed, nervously reaching out a hand to him. And he was done in. She was his, utterly, for the rest of the night.

"Suppose that was rather dramatic and adolescent of me," Fayden murmured, when she heard footsteps behind her. She had been pacing back and forth on the docks for the past few minutes, and now stood, arms crossed, looking out at the water. "Sorry, I needed some air."

"Quite all right," The Doctor assured her while casually continuing his trek, stopping at her side, hands in his pockets. Fayden didn't look away from the ocean.

"You didn't mention that you had a close friend from my home planet." She noted lightly, though The Doctor didn't miss the bite to her tone. He'd had far too many human women traveling with him in the TARDIS to be as oblivious to their subtleties as they all thought he was. He simply chose to be polite about it.

"Honestly, I never really put the two thoughts together," He confessed, "I know a priest and a rabbi who both live on 82nd Poosh, they've never met…"

"The Boeshane Peninsula was the boondocks, Doctor."

"Boondocks that existed for over a thousand years and housed over 20,000 people before the tragedy struck," The Doctor was quick to remind her. Fayden looked like she wanted to argue further…then let it drop, with a deep sigh. "I am sorry Fay, a normal person might have picked that connection up right away…Martha did…but I've got a lot rattling around in this old brain. Social networking isn't it's strong point, either…"

"It's all right," Fayden shrugged, "Was just looking for someone to blame my reaction on, I guess…" She let out a short laugh, shaking her head at herself, "Goddess, I haven't hit a man in a bar since I was 18..." The Doctor smirked.

"Can't say I haven't seen a scorned former acquaintance abuse him before," He mused, "If you don't mind my asking, what did he…?"

"Ah, well," Fayden cleared her throat, "We go back a ways…" She paused, thinking, glaring out at the sea, "Simply put, we're the two extremes when it comes to former inhabitants of Boe. I became obsessed with recreating it. And he ran as far away from it as he could, as fast as he could."

"I see," The Doctor nodded, both understanding and also rather surprised. "Makes perfect sense, though, I have to admit, knowing Jack as I do I expected the nature of your scorn to be something a bit more…" he hedged, waving one hand back and forth before settling on a word, "…base." Fayden snorted.

"Oh don't get me wrong," She assured him, "He's got my virginity in his back pocket as well."

"Oh, brilliant…" The Doctor grinned, "This, this is going to be a fun visit, this is…"

The conversations which took place during the walk to Torchwood were surprisingly void of depth, considering. Martha and Mickey turned out to be waiting for Fayden and The Doctor just off the water front, and led the way to the hub without a single mention of the incident in the pub. Fayden was grateful, as she really didn't feel like acknowledging behavior she considered below herself nowadays. Instead Martha chattered with her animatedly about some of the cases she'd seen while working there. Mickey and The Doctor discussed something else about a pace behind, something Fayden was fairly certain had nothing to do with Torchwood and everything to do with a past involving Rose, a past on this planet she knew so little about, even though her genetic core had originated there.

"I've been thoroughly warned," A young man said by way of greeting as they entered what appeared to be a rather dodgy tourist information office. He was standing behind a desk, eying Fayden warily, but Martha just laughed.

"Good for you. Doctor, Fayden, Ianto," She introduced without stopping, moving forward into the depths of the bunker.

"Ianto!" The Doctor greeted back brightly, as he followed them all down, "Nice to meet you in person, as opposed to over a screen."

"The same," The young man replied, "Somewhat of a legend 'round here, Doctor."

"Are you a legend everywhere you go?" Fayden had to ask, making Mickey laugh out loud. The Doctor scoffed.

"There are planets where they still sing pop songs about me…" He divulged, before they found themselves stepping into the hub itself. "Huh…" The Doctor trailed off for a moment, putting on his glasses and looking up at the rift manipulator. "Well, now, for a bunch of humans, that's not half bad I suppose."

"I'll take that as a compliment," A voice said from above. Jack was glancing down from what looked to be a hot house, sporting a rather purple spot just under his cheek bone. Fayden frowned. She thought she had hit him harder than that. And he was looking at her, steadily. "Welcome to Torchwood, Doctor."

"Like what you've done with the place," The Doctor inspected the rest of the hub, his voice light but his eyes sharp, careful. He watched Mickey wander over to Gwen's desk, where the two of them seemed to be intently studying something not of this world, and frowned. Jack tore his eyes away from Fayden, and smiled tightly, descending the stairs.

"I'll show you around, maybe then you'll be assured?" He suggested, and The Doctor shook his head.

"I will always have my issues with alien tech in the hands of 21st Century humans, Jack," The Doctor assured him right back, "But seeing as you're not exactly a 21st Century human, tell me what you're working on."

The two men started talking, though Jack's eyes kept flicking over to Fayden, his expression unreadable. Martha was making her way toward what looked like a med station, and Fayden was happy to follow her, to get away from him. There was a body on a table, down in the sunken medical room, and it didn't take Fayden long to pick out what was odd about it. "Laser burns?"

"That's right," Martha nodded, pulling on gloves and lab coat, "He was shot with something that certainly didn't come from here, even though the shooter did," She explained. It was the same story Jack was telling The Doctor upstairs, but Martha didn't mind. "A bloke named Francis broke out of a mental health facility last week. Bipolar egomaniacal schizophrenic," Martha winced, as she set about finishing what The Doctor's arrival must have interrupted, the putting away of the body, "Sad, but nothing the regular authorities couldn't handle. Except that he's somehow gotten his hands on some alien tech, and he's gone on a shooting spree."

"If it's a spree, wouldn't it be easy for you to follow the path of destruction right to him?" Fayden asked, curious. Martha sighed,

"You'd think so," She nodded, shoving the body into a freezer, "Except that we think whatever he's got is more than just a weapon. The killings are at random, all over the area, all at random times…we think it's also got a teleporting feature."

"I repeat," The Doctor cut in brightly, leaning over the rail to grin down at them, "Issues." Martha rolled her eyes at him.

"It wasn't anything of ours," She told him, "No idea where he found it."

"Hold on!" Gwen called from her desk, drawing everyone's attention. She listened carefully to the buzz of police reports in her ear set for a moment, "It's him, another body, and very close by."

"Twice in one day?!" Martha cried, yanking her lab coat back off.

"Picking up momentum," Jack noted grimly, looking at The Doctor, "I hope you'll come with us, I know how good you are with teleports."

"I wouldn't miss it!" He replied merrily, glancing down again at his companion, "Fayden?"

"Oh why not?" She smirked back up at him, pointedly ignoring Jack as she walked back up the stairs, "You do still have to prove this whole legendary bit to me."

The lot of them filed out of the hub in a hurry, though to her dismay, Jack caught Fayden's arm as they did so, leaving them a good ways behind everyone else.

"Look, I'm sorry," She said in a rush, keeping her gaze fixed forward, on the people ahead of them, "Was just…not expecting to see you, is all…specially not with a new name." She added that bit on with a biting tone.

"You left." He said simply, his eyes burning into her as they walked. Fayden knew that burn, even without seeing it she had to shut her eyes, steel her jaw. "I woke up and you were gone. Sixteen years old and GONE, Fayden." She turned her glare on him at his rather accusing tone. Ahead of them, Ianto was glancing over his shoulder as their voices raised, "I didn't know if you'd gotten kidnapped on the way to the shops, or worse! I spent four months looking for you, I thought you were DEAD!" They'd stopped in the tunnels now, and had failed to notice that the group ahead of them was now watching their exchange.

"So I handled things badly!" She shouted back, "You said it yourself, I was sixteen. What was I supposed to do when John told me you two were fucking regularly, stick around and be the underage roommate with benefits?!"

He opened his mouth to shout back, but ended up simply gaping like a fish a few times before closing his mouth. Fayden looked away from him quickly, not letting herself look him in the eyes again. Gwen cleared her throat loudly, bringing them both back to the present.

"We um," Gwen thumbed toward the bulkheads. Beside her, Martha was fighting fiercely against a very persistent grin, "Should hurry, bodies and lingering teleport fields and all…"

Jack and Fayden shared one last look, starting out as a glare and trailing down to something between resignation (on her part) and regret (on his), until they both looked away, and hurried to catch up with the team. Gwen hurried to fill the silence with telling them everything she'd heard over the police waves, The Doctor listened closely even as he muttered to himself about the dangers of domestics, Mickey and Martha were both entirely amused, and Ianto looked as if he very much wanted to ask quite a few questions of his employer/lover. Jack was all business in the space of a minute, and Fayden…well, she was pretending not to hate herself for letting him make her regress to a petulant teenager.

They were afraid that things were going to go all sorts of wrong when they'd followed Francis Richmond's teleportation signal to the top of a building in the heart of Cardiff. He was waving a large, clearly alien gun about and screaming to high heaven about the end of times. Jack, Mickey and Gwen had led the advance, guns trained on him, the rest not far behind. Soon, however, they realized that Francis was much more interested in having an audience to his madness than killing any of them, at least currently. After two minutes of ranting, those who weren't holding guns even got bored enough to sit down.

"The light fell, and thus I was ordained!" Francis cried out over and over, shooting blindly into the sky a few times for effect. Leaning against the roof's edge behind the line of Torchwood employees, The Doctor was intrigued.

"Light fell, eh?" He asked, "Whereabouts?"

"Far afield, beyond the bars of my wretched prison!"

"Guessing that means near the asylum," Martha noted casually, "But if something alien fell, wouldn't we have known?" Gwen lowered her gun a few inches, thinking.

"When we talked to them today, they did mention there being a thunderstorm the night he escaped," She reminded Jack, who nodded.

"Thunderstorms," The Doctor mused, tapping his chin, "I can name more than one species who could crash land on this planet in a cloud of electricity, and you lot would be none the wiser."

"So not everything out of Loony Francis' mouth is nonsense!" Jack smiled brightly, Francis glared, and before anyone could react, his wild flailing suddenly turned deadly accurate, a laser beam hitting Jack square between the eyes. Mickey had a tranquilizer in Francis a second before Gwen did also, and the two men hit the ground one right after another.

Fayden was vaguely aware of her heart stopping for a fraction, of everything slowing down around her. She was frozen where she stood, watching Gwen and Ianto kneel down by Jack as the rest of them hurried to Francis. She must have said his name, his real name, because they both looked up at her in startled confusion. Fayden walked forward, her vision blurring, and sank to her knees at his side. The only thought in her head for a long moment was that the last thing she'd said to this man (who, for better or worse, was the only sort of family she had left in the universe), were said in anger. Over something that had happened fourteen years before. Something that no longer mattered.

Then another thought occurred to her, as she took his head in her lap, studied his still face. No one else seemed alarmed. No one else seemed too terribly distressed. If anything, beside her Gwen and Ianto seemed only…anxious? Before Fayden had time to properly sort out that information, she heard a sharp, deep intake of breath. She gasped, looking down with a start, everything suddenly returning to normal speed around her.

His eyes were open. He was breathing. He was looking up at her. He was grinning.

"Well, I suppose this makes us even."

Author's Notes: BumbumbumBUM! ...Actually, we all knew that would happen. She didn't, though. The next chapter should be very swift in coming, fear not :D Again, thank you so much for the kind reviews, here, on polyvore and on my blogs, I am le humble.