When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Thanks for the reviews!

There's not too much going on in this chapter, soz, I just wanted to get all of the 'need to know' stuff out of the way. I promise the next chapter will have more excitement in it.

Chapter 3: My Personal Bad Wolf Problem

"Hey, we've just landed at Lanzarote Airport in La Palma. How's The Doctor?" Rose asked.

Jack once again looked at The Doctor's pale face, but he didn't want to make Rose worry and spoil her holiday. "He seems fine," Jack lied.

"Good, well make sure he gets lots of rest, and don't be dragging him all over London," Rose warned.

'Bit late for that.' Jack thought to himself. "Don't you think I know that?" He said out loud to Rose. "What do you think I'm gonna do, take him out drinking or something? I'm not that dumb," Somewhere off to his side Jack heard a snort.

"You know I didn't mean it like that Jack," Rose sighed. "I just know what your like is all."

"Well, no need to worry, you just have a good time."

"Alright. Thanks again Jack for looking after him," Rose said gratefully. "Listen, the luggage is comin', I've gotta go but I'll ring again tomorrow. See ya, and tell The Doctor hi. Bye!"

The line went dead and Jack put the phone back. "Rose says 'hi'." He sat down next to The Doctor on the sofa and looked at him straight in the face.

"Didn't she want to talk to me?"

"Luggage."

"Oh."

"I can't die."

"What?" The Doctor asked, surprised by the sudden change in conversation, not realising what exactly Jack had just said.

"I can't die," He repeated clearly.

The Doctor looked at him in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Jack shrugged lightly. "Well, I've been shot multiple times, killed by aliens…but I just keep on coming back."

"Well, that's odd, an immortal human. Have you tried jumping in front of a train?" He joked.

"Er, no, I'm guessing being decapitated or anything of the sort would be the end."

"Well, there's got to be a reason, right?" The Doctor said, turning serious.

"I'm guessing it's got something to do with Rose bringing me back," Jack shrugged. "There's this other weird thing to, if people are unconscious or dying, I can help them. There was this one girl, she had an alien inside of her, but I saved her with a kiss. I'm not sure what it is, but it's a gold…thing. Or - I really am that good of a kisser," He grinned. "Care to find out first hand?"

The Doctor ignored his last statement, and sat thinking for a few seconds. "Why does this sound familiar? Why? It pieces together, but what is it?" He stood and began pacing, running his hand threw his hair and making it stick out at odd angles. "That's it!" He shouted, causing Jack to jump. "Bad Wolf. When Rose brought you back, it wasn't just life she gave you - it was the Bad Wolf itself!"

"What?" Jack interrupted. "I'm not following. Bad Wolf, that's just words that we saw."

The Doctor shook his head, bouncing up and down, unable to keep still. "It wasn't - the Bad Wolf was a message to itself. Don't you get it Jack? Rose was, is, Bad Wolf. This whole time it's been inside her. To get back to me she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and it triggered it. Using the Bad Wolf she killed all of the Daleks. But you…she wanted you alive, and so she put some of the Bad Wolf inside you. That's what's keeping you alive. Rose wanted you to live, and so you are. Forever…"

Jack sat, trying to take it all in. "So I've got this Bad Wolf thing inside of me. What is it exactly?"

The Doctor gave him a bright grin. "No idea. But it's powerful, extremely powerful. Brilliantly powerful in fact!"

"So is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Jack wanted to know.

"I'm not sure." The Doctor answered truthfully. "But that's another interesting thing, a golden light when waking people. Back on Satellite Five, the power was killing Rose and so I took it from her with a kiss. When I did that, a golden light left her and went into me. But no, that was the TARDIS, not Bad Wolf. Which can only mean one thing."

"…What?"

"Its not only the Bad Wolf you have inside you, but also a little of the TARDIS."

"Whoa, okay, to much information for the minute. So I really am immortal?"

"Looks like," The Doctor grinned brightly. "Just wait another 100 years, you won't have hardly changed. And as an old saying back on Gallifrey went, life begins at 750."

Jack didn't seem to be listening to him now; he was too caught up in what he'd just learned. "So I'll really have to go on and on… Watching everyone around me grow old and die." It wasn't a question and The Doctor knew it.

"That's the curse which comes with it." The Doctor's face fell, feeling sorrow for his friend. "But…"

Jack looked up at The Doctor again when he trailed off. "But what?" He encouraged the Time Lord to continue.

The Doctor shrugged lightly, not sure if he should say it, if Jack would want to. "You could always come with me…" Ever since the Time War, The Doctor had wished for a companion who could always travel with him. Like he'd once told Rose, she could spend all of her life with him, but he couldn't spend his with her. It hurt so much to lose a friend, to watch them grow old and die. Humans have such short life spans. But with Jack, that'd be so much different. The Doctor wouldn't have to watch Jack die.

"Go with you? For the rest of time?" Jack said in shock.

"Well you don't have to, I just thought that, you know, maybe, you'd like to..." The Doctor trailed off, not quite meeting Jack's eyes.

Jack gave The Doctor an amused grin. "I didn't mean it like that." He then pulled a joyful face and gave a loud, fake sniff. "I never new how much you cared for me."

The Doctor rolled his eyes but smiled never the less. "Good, well now that's sorted, what can we do for the next fortnight?"

"Don't look at me, I've no – wait, Rose!" Jack jumped up from the sofa and joined The Doctor. "If the Bad Wolf is keeping me alive, it'll keep Rose alive too, right?"

The Doctor sighed and shook his head sadly. "I highly doubt it. The Bad Wolf in you is solely there to give you life - Rose somehow bent it for that purpose. The Bad Wolf inside of her serves a different reason."

Jack and The Doctor sat back down, the former wishing he hadn't mentioned it. "So," he said, breaking the silence they'd fallen into. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. Well, what have you been doing whilst on Earth?"

"Fighting aliens."

"I mean in your spare time."

"Er, saving the world."

"But what else, there must be something you do for fun."

"Get shot by my employee?"

"Geez, and you say I have no social life. At least I get out, meet new species," The Doctor laughed, giving Jack a goofy grin.

"Yeah, well I don't have a TARDIS do I? And I don't trust any aliens on Earth… Except for you."

"Never trust a Venusian Shanghorn with a Perigosto stick." The Doctor grinned wide, flashing his teeth.

Jack raised his eyebrows, amused. "I have no idea what that means, but okay."

"So, you've been working at Torchwood, right? Why don't we visit? You're probably missing loads of work," suggested The Doctor with a shrug.

"I'm not sure you'll really want to, being alien and all." The ex-con warned.

"I'll be fine. They work for you, so you can order them not to lock me up," He replied, reasonably.

"Maybe." Jack said, not sounding very confident about the idea. It wasn't really his team; it was more the fact of other Torchwoods, any higher up, finding out. They wouldn't be happy if he had the last of Time Lords, and just let him walk away. "Still, we've got 'til tomorrow to decide. Why don't we just go to bed for now? I still need to get it through my head that I'm never gonna die."

"Good idea. I'll probably feel better in the morning anyway. Night Jack."

"Yeah, night."

They both left the living room, Jack going into the spare room, and The Doctor back into Rose's. Both had a lot to think about, now that Jack was immortal.