5

"Doc, how many times have you said you trusted me?"

"I'd trust you with my lives Jack, but not with my daughter!"

"Father, really,-"

"And don't you start. Of all the stupid things to do, going into a city you don't know where something is attacking high energy lines specifically. I mean how thick can you get?"

"Doctor, we were just-" The Hub door rolled back to admit two very exasperated Time Lords and one slightly amused immortal. The Doctor turned sharply.

"I saw what you were 'just', Captain Jack Harkness! What gave you the blooming presumption to tell my daughter about sex?!"

"He didn't actually have time to tell me anything." He spared a glare for his daughter. Beside him, Jack shrugged. "She's old enough to talk about adult subjects."

The glare turned on Jack. "Yes, but not about sex! And not with you! We-Time Lords don't- you didn't need to bring that up."

Jack raised a brow. "Oh come on, Doc. Even the great and mighty Time Lords had to procreate."

"Well, yes-sort of-but we- ah, we didn't-there were the Looms for that though, and…but the point is, you went directly into harm's way, playing around when we've got two dangerous creatures to hunt down!"

"Two?" That cut the frustrating amusement from Jack's tone. The Doctor shot him another glare over his shoulder.

"Yes, Captain Cradle Robber, two. Based on the mapping projection of the anomalies I've gotten from your lot, once I weeded out the false starts, it seems there are two separate hunting grounds and two separate creatures. See for yourself." He strode to the door of his ship, pushing it open.

"How's it coming?"

"Quite well." The Walker replied from her place in the console chair. "The areas seem to be getting more defined with every true incident, though weeding through the false reports is taking the ship some time."

The Doctor stepped up behind her, studying the main monitor. He jabbed a finger at the center of one of the two areas delineated by blotches of yellow, turning on Jack.

"That's where you were, right in the middle of the attack epicenter. Really clever, real-ly clever." He shook his head, then typed several characters on the keyboard.

"Give me your tracking discs, you two."

Both his daughter and his friend handed over their discs. Plugging them into one of the console's information input circuits, he typed for another moment, then pulled them out, handing them over brusquely.

"There. These'll work better now; track just what they ought to track. And we better track them fast. We can't waste any more time. The worm I just jigged about with out there was fully mature, strong too. Big bugger. And if they're mature, we've got a new problem. The things themselves are trouble enough, but the worst of it is that they'll scent each other's pheromones. Then if they're both mature they'll want to get together and make a load of little time worms, and we really don't want that. Plus, one of them knows that there are other big fish in the pond now .It won't forget meeting me in a hurry." He straightened, and ran his eyes over the readouts and information, appraising for a long moment. "I think it's time for all of us to get out there and round the buggers up. We'll split into two groups, one for each hunting ground. Walker, you can go with the Captain; you're sensible enough to keep from falling for his nonsense. Jenny, you're with me. Once the other two get in, we can go."

"And what do we do when we catch up to them?" Jack asked. The Doctor met his eyes.

"Pest control."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Pest control. Gwen trudged behind father and daughter. Pest control. Gwen hated going into situations without information. But even Jack had been vague this time.

"Do me a favor, go with the Doctor and help him out with his pest control." Was all he had said, a hint of amusement in his voice. Jack was always a bit…well, he was Jack. Enigmatic, maybe. But he'd never withheld this much on things involved in the job before. Because he had, she was stuck trailing about after these two, absolutely no clue where they were headed or why. She'd been handed a small tranquilizing gun of some kind, but how she was supposed to shoot something she didn't see she had no idea. And the Doctor had been even less forthcoming than Jack. They were tracking, he'd stated shortly, with something about 'residual timeline interfaces'. And what the bloody hell that meant she, again, had no clue.

But it obviously meant something to the Doctor, because he'd taken off like a dog that smelled a Sunday roast, and they'd been on the streets for most of the day after that. The trail had already led them to a construction site where a man's leg had been crushed by a badly secured beam. They'd interviewed one of his mates, who'd been pretty far into shock.

"I don' know how the 'ell it happened." The man kept repeating. "We had that thing tied up right."

The two aliens had exchanged a dark look. They knew just how it had happened.

Then they'd entered a hospital, finding a patient who'd just been given the wrong medicine. A fatal mistake. And now they were back on the street. All three of them held the little tracking discs in their hands. The girl ahead of her alternated between glancing at it and looking down the street. Her father barely looked at his disc, his eyes narrowed on the street ahead of them. Sometimes he'd stop and glance around slowly, only to shrug and take off again.

"What should I watch for to spot this kind of residual point?" the girl asked quietly.

"It's a bit like a twist in the local temporal fabric." Her father replied, eyes fixed ahead. "Sort of…" he dropped into their language. Gwen hated it when people talked in other languages around her. She'd hated it from the third day of work at the DC. Germans, Italians and French were bad enough; their conversations always made her feel like they were trying to keep something from her. But these two could very easily speak English, which made it that much worse. And of course they'd probably just say she couldn't understand if she asked what they were on about.

Gwen caught herself. She was angrier than she needed to be, and she knew it. But these days she couldn't seem to help getting brassed off. Even Rhys had said something about it. It was like the switch had been flipped on a couple of months ago.

Jenny dropped back."So how long have you lived here in Cardiff?" This was about the third time that the girl had tried to start the talk going. It was hard, Gwen admitted, to stay angry at somebody who tried so hard to be friendly.

"All my life." She replied, pulling herself together. "My mum was born here too."

"Oh wow. And her mum too?"

"Yeah. We've been here since the eighteen hundreds."

Jenny nodded. "So this town is really in your blood. Your family must be proud that you're defending it."

Gwen shrugged. "S'pose, yeah. Course they don't know what I do; I told Mum an' Dad that I work in Special Ops. I don' think they'd like it much if I told 'em I'm an alien catcher." She smiled sardonically. Jenny's pale face glowed in reply.

"Always fun figuring out what to tell people, isn't it?"

"Well, it's not like you can go about telling your mates 'what did I do today? Oh, caught a weevil, locked down the Rift again, hunted down a giant blowfish bloke an' sent 'im on 'is way'."

"Yeah. I have a pretty long cover story, because you don't tell people 'What do I do? I travel in space time. My family? Oh, my dad's the Doctor, and my mum's a big blue box." Jenny shook her head with a grin.

"Blue box?" Gwen said, her brow wrinkling. Was she talking about their ship?

The girl shrugged. "The TARDIS. She's kind of like a mum. Takes care of me and my father, tells us where we should go, reminds Father to do the shopping. Stuff like that. She's always there."

"So your ship's…what, alive?"

Jenny shrugged. "Sort of. Alternately sentient."

"And how about when you're not travelling?" Gwen asked. Jenny glanced at her, perplexed.

"We're always travelling."

"But-don' you have a house somewhere?"

"The TARDIS is our house. She's our home." She glanced at Gwen's face.

"You probably think that it's too small for that; most people do, but you only saw the console room. There's a lot more in-"

"Jenny, less talking, more tracking, thanks."

Jenny started. "Yes, Father." It made Gwen's gorge rise, the way he acted. What a bugger the man was. Jenny shot a sideways glance at her.

"Sorry about Father." She said softly, "He can be like that sometimes. When he's preoccupied."

Ahead of them, the Doctor stopped for what must have been the fifth or sixth time, standing stock still.

"Jenny, you were asking how the time interface residuals look?"

"Yeah?"

"Actually," he said slowly, "They look like that. And this one's almost fresh. Maybe….come on."

They'd entered a big office building now, one of those places with a big lobby and a desk sitter. The Doctor smiled brightly in the woman's direction.

"The gents still waiting on us then? Lovely. Allonsy, girls." He kept the smile until they were on the stairs, leaving the bewildered secretary behind.

As they climbed to the second story, Jenny glanced behind her. "Keep up, Gwen." Her father was already several steps ahead of her. All at once, he went stiff as a board, staring.

"Oh. There you are…" then he took off running down the corridor, his daughter on his heels. By the time Gwen got to the top of the stairs, she could just see Jenny dashing around the corner at the end of the long hall. Bloody hell they were fast. She sprinted flat-out after them.

In the time it took her to make it into the room, the Doctor had already gotten on his knees beside a prostrate man, the little device he always carried glowing blue against the man's collarbone.

"Come on, come on!" he growled. The body jerked twice. Then the Doctor sat back on his heels. He glanced up at his daughter.

"No good?"

"No good."

Slowly, he stood.

"We can't do anything here. Come on."

"I'll call hospital." Gwen said, looking around for a phone.

"No time." The Doctor said, turning away.

Gwen turned. Had she heard him right?

"Aren't you goin' to call the paramedics?" she asked sharply. The Doctor shook his head.

"There's no point, he's dead. We need to keep moving and follow the trail while it's hot."

The plain callousness of this brought Gwen's anger to the boil again.

"Oh right, follow the trail, which'll lead us to another dead man. Don' suppose we could use all your amazing stuff and get to them before they kick it, maybe?"

For a moment the man simply stared at her. Then he turned, and swept out of the room, coattails flapping. Gwen wanted badly to stop and call the hospital, but if she tried she'd be left behind. Hands balled into fists, she followed.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Jenny was starting to get really frustrated. They were still tracking, nine hours later. The sun was setting, and they were still too far behind. All they seemed to find were people they were too late to help. Apparently the other team was having the same sort of luck; they'd been in radio contact, and though the Walker felt that she was very close behind, she hadn't had even one sighting of the creatures.

Soon the sun had set all together, and the street lights flickered on.

"Right Jack," the Doctor said into the radio speaker, "We're headed in the same direction. We'll be there in a few minutes." He shut off the unit with an explosive sigh.

"The trails are dovetailing. They're getting close to each other. Great. Just great. There's a club up ahead; the Walker thinks one of the worms has gone inside. We'll regroup there."

Jenny nodded. Beside her, Gwen barely responded. She'd been getting angrier ever since they started. Jenny knew she was supposed to shield herself enough so that she only picked up on emotions when she chose to, but she couldn't help noticing what she saw in Gwen. It could be dangerous, working with a comrade who was so on-edge. It was certainly unsettling.

The club was a warehouse of a building with a flashing sign over the door. Inside, more lights strobed, and pounding music made the floor reverberate with the beat. Gwen held up a badge, and they were in. People covered every inch of the room. The dance form was a lot less graceful than the Arabic style from the same time period. All the same, it looked fun, like the music. She loved this kind of music.

But she really needed to focus. The number of people moving and making sudden decisions created a play of timelines that was as distracting as the strobe lights. She narrowed her eyes. Hunting was going to be crap in here.

Watching the crowd, Jenny ran through their attack strategy. Whichever of the three of them found the animal, they were supposed to take and warp the environmental timelines around it. That many sudden changes would keep it distracted for a long period of time; then they could incapacitate it and store it in the TARDIS, where it couldn't do much damage. If one of the Torchwood team picked up its signal, they were to call one of the Time Lords. She fingered the tranquilizer in her jean pocket, running fingers carefully over the trigger. About bloody time they did this right. Stupid bug.

Smart bug, she corrected herself. Scarily smart. A powerful adversary.

"Oh bloody hell. It would be a bloody rock club."

Jenny glanced at Gwen.

"Hunh?"

"Rock club. They play old rock music from the UK and the USA. I hate these places." And she really was roiling with more annoyance than ever. In contrast, her father was smiling as he tapped a trainer.

"Well, be that as it may…" the Doctor said, his gaze sweeping the room. He peered into the crowd, then raised a hand and waved.

"Ah! There's Jack and the rest." He waved both his hands in a wide gesture, and Jenny saw Jack nod. The Doctor raised his voice so Gwen could hear him in the din.

"Right. We're going to fan out. Jack seems to be following my meaning; always knows how to follow orders, good chap."

The wordless shout of anger and emotion turned Jenny on instinct. Gwen's face had gone rigid as titanium, and her eyes burned into the Doctor with something approaching rage. But the Doctor wasn't looking at her. "Gwen, I want you to-"

"I don't think I bloody well care what you want me to do!" Gwen snapped. Her words turned the Doctor's head, his expression baffled, but she had already launched into more loud words.

"I don' think you've noticed, but I happen to work for Jack, for Torchwood, an' not for you, I don' care how much you know or what plan you got in mind. I get my orders from Jack, got it?"

"If I'm right, Jack ordered you to help me out." The Doctor replied. "So if you want to save a few lives…"

"Oh, like we've done earlier? Seems like all you manage to do is get there a few minutes too late. At least at Torchwood we get this done with less messing about and fewer bodies. You haven't helped a single person today!" She glared up at the Doctor. He stared at her. For a moment, Jenny saw the flash of pain in his eyes, the pain that he always hid, twisting up inside of him, cutting like knives. He seemed to hold his breath for a moment. Then he turned away.

"Fine. Go and ask your Captain for orders; I don't have time to deal with you. Jenny, northwest diagonal direction."

Jenny didn't bother to respond; she was too livid. Hot anger was burning up the pit of her stomach, tightening her muscles into whipcords. Before the other woman moved, Jenny grabbed her arm, making her turn to face the girl's gaze.

"I want you to leave my father alone."

"What-"

"Leave my father alone." Jenny repeated her order over the barrage of Poison. "He's doing what he can, and he doesn't need you reminding him of the civilian damage that's been sustained."

"Civilian damages?" Gwen barked, tugging her arm away, "Funny, doesn't look like he gives a damn about these civilian damages."

Jenny let out a mirthless laugh. "You actually believe that my father doesn't care? Maybe your files didn't tell you this, but we're empathic as well as telepathic. Know what that means? It means that every time we meet somebody hurting, like these victims and their friends, we feel it. My father feels it most of all. He still remembers people he couldn't help from two hundred years ago, and beats himself up about them. But he doesn't let emotions get in the way of completing the mission. Maybe you can do the same, and leave him alone."

"Oh sure!" Gwen was almost yelling now. "Then maybe you can tell him to leave Jack alone! You lot, you come t'this planet, and all of you have super powers or amazing intellect or amazing tech stuff. Even your goddamn bugs can knock us all to shit. And we've got nothing against it. We've got the shit and the leftovers of the universe, all the stuff out there, we get the junk. And then the one person we got who knows about it, the one person who knows what the bloody hell we can do, and you come in an' have the gall to give him orders! You've got no right! And you haven't got the right to come here and use this planet for whatever goddamn thing you like! Dump, hunting ground, refugee camp, I'm fucking sick of it, sick of all of this shit! So you can take your orders and go stuff them, you got me?"

For a moment, Jenny stared at the woman, blinking in the wake of the emotional storm. All that feeling. So much of it. And all from a simple mission.

"So dramatic, you lot." She said absently.

But now that she looked, really looked, she saw the reason. All that emotion had uncovered the things that caused her anger, boiled them up to the surface. Jenny's gaze softened as she understood, and spoke.

"You're angry. You're sad and you're hurt. And you're right, it's not fair, the things that happen. It's wrong that somebody could just come out of the stars, wreck your life and take away your friends like they did. And you try to say it doesn't hurt. But it's going to. It always hurts. It's supposed to hurt." She kept her gaze steady, even as the other woman's filled with tears, waiting as the waves of emotion wracked her. Then she said the only thing she could think of, the only thing that might lend comfort.

"The thing is, we've got a duty here. You and me, Father and Jack, we fix things, best as we can. That's our prerogative. We've got a job to do. So let's go and do it." Pulling out her tracking disc, Jenny laid a hand on the human's shoulder, giving her what emotional help she could. Then she stepped into the crowd, leaving Gwen standing with her hands balled into fists, her eyes full of tears that glinted beneath the lights.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tell me, doctor, where are we going this time
Is this the 50's, or 1999
All I wanted to do - was play my guitar and sing

The Doctor strode through the crowd. His granddaughter was right. This worm was somewhere close at hand. Tiny changes were occurring everywhere: A glass shattered. A shoe was broken. A drink spilled. A gaffe was made in conversation. This was a veritable feasting ground for the thing.

He almost had it. Almost. It had found a couple who was most likely going to get married in a few years. But not if the fellow muffed it right now and annoyed the girl first. Well, at least he was able to tweak those lines back on track.
So take me away, I don't mind
But you better promise me, I'll be back in time
Gotta get back in time

He saw Jack in the timelines before he saw the man himself, like a rock in the river.

"Doctor! Any luck?"

"A bit, but not enough."

Don't bet your future, on one roll of the dice
Better remember, lightning never strikes twice
Please don't drive 88, don't wanna be late again

The Doctor looked up, a smile flitting across his face. "This is Huey Lewis, right?"

Perplexed for a moment, Jack nodded.

"Think so…"

"So he wrote it after all! Said he'd write a song for me sometime. Very nice."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You met Huey Lewis."

"Met him, saved his life. Stolen TARDIS disguised as some sort of car, held in non-Time Lord hands. Long story. But, back to the point. We're close. Very very close. But all these people…"

"I could clear the place."

"Nah, the worm'd just leave with them. It's them that it's here for."

So take me away, I don't mind
But you better promise me, I'll be back in time
Gotta get back in time
Gotta get back in time
Get me back in time

"Think undercover would work?" Jack called over the music.

"What?"

"We mix into the crowd, pretend we're here to dance. Jenny, Walker and you attract it, if I understood what you said earlier."

"Mm. That's a distinct…" The Doctor glanced up at the ceiling for a moment as he thought. It could work, though he'd have to keep well out of it; one of the bugs would remember him as a threat, and he had no way to tell which one was in here. Then his eyes registered what he was seeing. He looked back at Jack, a grin on his face.

"Actually, that's brilliant. But I'll do you one better."

Jack quirked a questioning eyebrow. For an answer, the Doctor pointed at the catwalks above.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

The next song started in a beat of drum and cymbals.

It's astounding
time is fleeting
madness takes its toll
but listen closely
not for very much longer
I've got to take control

"We're to do what?"

"Dance." Ianto repeated, "Jack and your granddad have some idea they want to try. He told me we're to mix into the crowd and dance, look like we're just here for a good time." Leaning over, he handed her a short note. The Walker almost rolled her eyes as she read it. Only Grandfather would try something like this. She tried to contact him for a moment, find out exactly what he was up to. But he was distracted. With a sigh, the Walker shrugged.

"I suppose." She studied the dancers for a moment more.

I remember doing the time warp
drinking those moments
the blackness would hit me
and the void would be calling

The crowd was tight, pulsing to the beat. Apparently this dance had steps, because the Walker saw several people making the same movements. And she couldn't help but appreciate the lyrics.


Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

Off to her left, there was Jack, doing the moves of the dance perfectly, and his partner Ianto, only a little less skilled. Jenny shimmied up, and called her over.

"You've got to learn this!"

"We're supposed-"

"I can keep an eye out and dance at the same time, so can you!"

It's just a jump to the left
then you step to the right
put your hands on your hips
then bring your knees in tight
but it's the pelvic thrust
that really drives you insane

Jack made the most of the more lewd movements of the dance, making them all grin. Soon both girls had picked up the steps. Despite her nervousness, the Walker couldn't help but enjoy the music. This was certainly a rather agreeable way to act as bait.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

The Doctor jumped stairs two at a time. This was going to work out quite nicely. He'd reset all the tracking devices remotely to go off the moment a bug was picked up, and quite loudly too. Whoever had a reacting unit was to hold it up, and that would mark the creature as it glowed. When it went off, he'd use his vantage point up on the catwalks to pinpoint the creature and tranquilize it. There was no way he'd spot it down in the turmoil, but up there, he could see the patterns of dancers playing out clearly. Perspective. It was really all about perspective.

It's so dreamy oh fantasy free me
so you can't see me no not at all
In another dimension voyeuristic intention
Well secluded I see all

He opened a door on to the catwalks. They spread over the entire superstructure, both dance floors and several back rooms. Calculating the weight capacity of the structure absently, the Doctor stepped on to the catwalk, studying the floor beneath. He soon spotted Jenny and the Walker dancing near each other, Jack and his lover nearly embracing as they danced, Gwen over on the second floor. His assumption had been right. Everything was much clearer up here.

With a bit of a mind flip
you're into a time trip
and nothing can ever be the same
You're spaced out on sensation
like you're under sedation

Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

However, his assumption about the catwalk had been wrong. They weren't actually connected; more floating on their ropes. Most of them were only a step apart, but a few he'd need to jump. Well, no problem. He studied the dance floors with flickering eyes, stepping from catwalk to swaying catwalk. The music rolled through the room.

Well I was walking down the street
just a having a think
when a snake of a guy gave me
a mean evil wink

He shoook-a me up
he took me by surprise
he was staring at me
He had a pick up truck
and the devil's eyes


Why was it that so many human songs had to do with sex? Honestly, they really were obsessed with the subject, he thought as his eyes roved over the club. His favorite sex-maniac was currently dragging his man onto the next dance floor. The Doctor wondered if they remembered what their actual purpose in the place was by now. Well, at least they were happy.

Still not a bite. He walked back over in the direction of the first dance floor, towards the girls. Maybe they'd attract it.

He stared at me and I felt a change
time meant nothing, it never would again

He was over what looked to be a storage space, filled with musical bits, cleaning supplies and old decorations. It was directly between the two floors, a good vantage point. But maybe not good enough. He wanted to have an eye on the girls.

The next catwalk would take a bit of a jump. The calculation ran through his head, and he took a running leap. No problem.

Problem. It was here. How had it gotten up here? He could feel the pull and tug as the timelines changed. And the catwalk wasn't there, its location shifted in space. In the split second of empty air, the Doctor's fingers grasped for the rail just out of reach, his mind leaping for the timelines he needed even as he began to plummet. Too late.

He fell with a cry that was swallowed up in the blaring music.

Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again


Pain.

Blackness.

Author's Note: The songs are Huey Lewis's 'Back in Time' and Rocky Horror Show's 'Time Warp'