Heya peeps! This chapter is dedicated to paninigirl and truerockstar for having so much faith and enthusiasm for this story. Well this is the first chapter…Enjoy!

Jack was at his desk in the Torchwood hub, staring at the blank screen on his computer. He gazed down at his mouse, daring himself to activate the blank screen. For all his bravado and suave chat-up lines, Jack couldn't pluck up the courage to do the one thing that could change his life forever. He couldn't bring himself just to click on that saved file and confirm his suspicions.

That she was still alive.

What if she wasn't? What if she was dead? Irrevocably gone? Would it be worth the heartache to lose her once again? He didn't know if he could stand having his hope crushed one more time.

"One too many times" he thought

"But I have nothing left to lose" He reminded himself

Jack Harkness was a broken man. He shattered on that fateful day, and his heart had been scattered all over time and space.

A voice jerked him out of his trance; it was Gwen.

"What happened to you that made you like this?"

"Like what?"

"Jack, you can't die! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Anything? Goddamn it Gwen, it means everything! Thanks to her, he couldn't die. Thanks to her, he was condemned to spend a life trapped on earth. Alone.

"We've had this conversation before" He answered tiredly

"No" she argued, "We've had me asking you questions and you refusing to answer them."

Well that was true. Jack would have done anything to avoid answering her questions, knowing that the answers would split open his soul for the world to see.

"It doesn't matter anyway"

"It does. You shut yourself away from any human emotions. That isn't normal"

"And what would you know about normal?" He thundered in reply "I've seen things you'd never believe! What gives you the right to barge in here telling me what's right and wrong! You'd never understand" He finished wistfully

"I can at least try to understand if you just told me about it."

Yes, of course she could try. But deep down she is still just a human. Blinkered by the prejudices of her kind. She could never understand why he did it. Never.

"It doesn't work like that. It's complicated" Well that was the understatement of the millennia.

"Jack- what isn't?"

"You want to know how I got like this?"

Think about it Gwen. Do you really want to find out what happened? Do you really want to know what left me trapped here on this planet, a broken man?

"Yes." Crap. Jack thought she'd just leave it.

"But that means I'll have to tell you about my past."

"It can't be that bad. Everyone's ashamed of something."

Sure, thought Jack. But not everyone's mistakes could change the future of a planet, whose whims could decide the fate of a nation.

Jack took a deep breath.

"You know last Christmas, the prime minister made an appeal through the television for a person"

"Yeah, some Doctor guy who no-ones ever seen. Neil keeps on saying that everyone was hallucinating" Neil. The Boyfriend. The Idiot. The stupid, short-sighted idiot (who watches Wife Swap.).

"That's not true. He's real and he's the reason why Torchwood was set up. Read up on Torchwood's history and you'll find him. Then come to me."

Jack glanced back at his computer, sighed, and walked off leaving Gwen perplexed at the brief exchange just past. She glanced at Jack's computer screen wondering what he was about to do, then returned to her own desk. Should she do it? She was being eaten to pieces by the curiosity. Just what could he have done?

All that could be heard echoing across the base was the sound of frantic typing.

T-H-E D-O-C-T-O-R

Gwen waited for the results.

CLASSIFIED INFORMATION flashed across the active screen

"Damn" she silently cursed

"Read up on Torchwood's history and you'll find him"

H-I-S-T-O-R-Y O-F T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D

A large file appeared on the screen. Gwen moved her mouse over the icon, and clicked.

The events of November 21st in the year of our lord 1879 the account by Her Majesty Queen Victoria

"I have witnessed what no other mortal has ever seen. During my stay at the Torchwood Estate, I encountered a man called 'The Doctor'. He and his scantily clad girl Rose Tyler saved my life and destroyed a supernatural being. A werewolf. I do not know how the supernatural being came to be on this earth. The Doctor said that it was from another world. He defeated it, and I rewarded him with a knighting. 'Sir Doctor of Tardis' and his friend 'Dame Rose of the Powell Estate. After this, I banished them, exiled them to never return to my empire. Exiled to the end of time……I saw last night that Great Britain has enemies beyond imagination and that we must defend our borders on all sides. I propose an institute to investigate these strange happenings and to fight them. I will call it Torchwood; The Torchwood Institute. And if this Doctor should return, then he should beware, because Torchwood will be waiting….."

Could it be possible? The same man? He couldn't still be alive…could he?

Soon after, Jack came back to his desk and was slowly sifting through some files on his desk.

Gwen returned to his side.

"I've read it "

"Read what?" questioned Jack secretly knowing the answer.

"Queen Victoria's account of the werewolf. She mentioned The Doctor and someone called Rose Tyler"

Jack flinched at the names

Gwen continued "But that's impossible. That account was over a hundred years old! He can't still be alive."

"It's improbable, not impossible. But he is still alive"

"Is he an alien?"

"No matter what Torchwood says, The Doctor has saved this planet more times than you've had hot dinners."

"You didn't answer my question."

Did I ever say I wanted to? Thought Jack as he hopelessly tried to think of a reason to get away. But Torchwood was his life now. It had trapped him, and he had no where else to go.

"Yes. He's an alien." But not in the way Gwen thinks.

"How old is he?"

"About 900." At a guess...

"You're kidding me" Of course I am, Jack thought.

"No. He's a Time Lord"

"And what are Time Lords?"

"They're not things! They were the most respected race in the universe. Watching over us, protecting us. Protecting us from more dangers than even you will ever know. Without The Doctor, this world would have perished a thousand times over. "

"What happened?"

"There was a war, and they lost"

"To who"

"The Daleks" he replied with malice

"Wait, those things that look like pepper pots?"

Pepper pots? That was the most out of character description of the Daleks that Jack had ever heard. On other planets, the name Dalek struck fear into children and kings alike. Pepper pots were not the way to describe a race that could extinguish a nation, undo the work of a thousand generations in the blink of an eye.

"The most brutal race ever created."

"The Doctor is the last of his people. The Lonely God."

"Why do you call him that?"

"Because it's nigh impossible to kill him."

"Like you?"

"I'm no Time Lord. He has a nifty trick in which he cheats death. He regenerates, changes his body when the old one wears out. A Time Lord can regenerate twelve times with thirteen bodies, and then he dies."

"Which body is he on now?"

"If I'm guessing? His tenth."

"Doesn't he have a home planet?"

"Gallifrey was destroyed in the war. It burned. His whole race became part of a universal legend, a myth. Reduced to a children's bedtime story like Snow White or Peter Pan.

'Once upon a time, there were these people who travelled in beautiful machines called Tardis's. They watched over the cosmos, making sure everything was as it should be…' and so on."

"In the account, he's knighted 'Sir Doctor of Tardis'. That's the name of his ship?"

"He always did have a sense of humour" Jack chuckled to himself

"Jack?"

"Hmm" He let his guard down, and relaxed.

"Who's Rose Tyler?"

Jack's face immediately paled, and his whole body tensed.

"She's no-one." he mumbled looking down at his desk

"Jack, who is she?" Gwen wasn't sure how much she meant to Jack. But the mask he wore, the façade he hid behind was slowly slipping.

Tears were pricking in his eyes as he remembered her laugh, and her smile. He was shaking. The memories that he so painfully locked away, were now flooding back.

Who is she? Who? Rose Tyler, shop assistant? Rose Tyler, defender of the earth? Who? He didn't know really, she was just some girl who had fallen from the sky into his arms. But she was so much more than that.

"She was everything"

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Well that's it from us for now.

Chapter Two might be up in a week or so…(Responsibilities outside of fanfiction are so tedious)

UNTIL THE NEXT TIME…

SkinnyJeans & agapi16