Chapter 3: And So It Begins...
Jack headed towards the 'Guest Entrance' of the hub, and the Doctor and Martha followed behind him excitedly.
"You don't mind, do you? Helping us, I mean?" the Doctor asked Jack, suddenly aware that it may have been considered rude for him to assume that Jack would automatically help him. Jack turned to face him and walked backwards to the door.
"Of course not!" he smiled. "The Torchwood team is at your disposal." The three laughed, and as they reached the door, Jack held it open for them with an anxious look.
"It's just that... you're an alien." he began, once they were all inside the small office. "I don't know what my team will... make of you." No one said something for second, then Jack waved it away. "You know what, forget about it. I'm pretty sure they think I'm an alien, so it shouldn't be a problem."
They laughed as Jack lead the way through the Cog door, wondering just what Torchwood would make of the two travellers.
- - - - - - -
"Oh, they're coming in!" Gwen exclaimed, as they watched Jack lead the strangers up to the hub. No one moved for a second, and then all at once, the team rushed out of the CCTV room and headed for their stations. Toshiko automatically pulled up the computer program she was working on for Jack, Ianto ran to the coffee machine, Gwen started leafing through the paperwork on her desk, and Owen sat at his station with his feet on the desk, tossing a ball into the air.
They all pretended not to hear the Cog door slide open, and nobody turned to look as the two travellers entered the base. Jack cleared his throat, standing at the door with Martha and the Doctor, and only Owen got up and peered over to the three.
Martha was staring around the base in awe, examining everything she could see. The Doctor was stood with his hands in his pockets, smiling, waiting to meet the team.
"Hey! Will you lot get down here?" Jack called patiently, and Martha turned her attention to the now approaching Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Toshiko. Owen was the first to speak.
"Who's this then, Jack?" he asked, ignoring Gwen, who tutted loudly and rolled her eyes. She walked down to meet the newcomers with a smile and an outreached hand.
"Hi." she said with a welcoming smile, to which the Doctor and Martha smiled.
"Hi." Martha smiled back to Gwen, shaking her hand, and the Doctor said the same and gave a little wave.
"Whatever, now who are they, Jack?" Owen persisted, and Gwen sighed defeatedly.
"Ok," Jack laughed. "Torchwood, meet the Doctor, and Martha Jones." Jack indicated to each of them with his hand. "Doctor, Martha, meet Torchwood: Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, and Gwen Cooper. We are going to help the Doctor and Martha."
"With what?" Owen asked blankly.
"Good point." Jack turned to look at the Doctor. "What is it we're helping you with?"
The Doctor grinned. "Rose." was all he said.
No one spoke.
Martha and the Doctor were stood rooted to the spot, grinning like the happiest people in the universe, while Jack was standing open-mouthed in front of them, trying to frown and smile at the same time, clearly straining to find something to say. The Torchwood team were exchanging glances, finding that none of them knew what was going on.
"Y-you mean…" Jack cursed himself in his mind for stuttering, but he simply could not believe what he was hearing. He had to be dreaming. The Doctor couldn't have found a way. But they were still smiling. "There's a way?"
"Yep." the Doctor grinned, popping the 'p' with enthusiasm. "Martha found it."
"But it's not definite." Martha butted in, not wanting to get Jack's hopes up. "We've tried it out... a lot. But we can't get it to work properly. That's where you come in."
"Me?" Jack was once again surprised. Now, however, he was almost as excited as the Doctor, and his team seemed to be sharing that excitement with nervous smiles, though they had no idea what was going on. "What can I do?"
The Doctor shrugged and his face fell slightly. "Anything, Jack. Just... anything. Whatever you can. And your team can help!" he thrust his arm out to motion to the group. "If they want to..." he added as an afterthought, when he didn't receive quite the cheery response he'd expected.
"We'll help." Gwen offered, walking forwards to the Doctor and Martha. Jack frowned at her.
"We still don't know what this thing is." he stated, looking to the Doctor for an explanation.
"Tell you what," the Doctor began loudly. "Who's willing?"
Gwen, Toshiko, Jack and Ianto all raised their hands at once, and Owen, after glancing around to see who had volunteered, also put his hand in the air half-heartedly.
"Right," he continued. "Then everyone come down to the TARDIS and you can have a look."
Jack lead the way out the door, shortly followed by the Doctor, and Martha walked by the side of Toshiko and Gwen, whom she seemed to have instantly befriended. Ianto followed on after them, and Owen dragged himself out last, muttering to himself "What the hell is a TARDIS?"
- - - - - - -
"Welcome to the TARDIS." the Doctor grinned, as the Torchwood team entered the blue police box one by one.
"Uh… Jack? I don't think we're all gonna fit in there." Owen called from outside, standing behind Ianto at the back of the queue. "That or it's going to be very cramped. Which you might not object to; I mean, you'd probably quite enjoy it, but I don't think -" he trailed off into a murmur as Toshiko stepped inside after Gwen and gasped.
"What?" Owen called curiously, craning his head to see, then gave up. "Seriously Jack, have you seen the size of this thing?"
Jack's head popped out from round the side of the door, causing Ianto to stumble back in surprise. Owen pushed him back up lazily.
Jack looked to Owen. "It's fine. Now quit complaining and wait. You okay, Ianto?" he asked and Ianto nodded.
"Fine, thanks." Ianto smiled. "Sir." he added cheekily as an afterthought. Owen followed Ianto in, rolling his eyes, and stopped still as soon as he was inside. The door was closed behind him, but Owen didn't realise. He stared around the room in amazement.
"Okay, that's... different." he started, pretending that the size of the room didn't faze him. "It's... bigger on the inside." he said finally, and realised that he was being laughed at. "Come on, this is weird." he insisted. "Even for us, this is... strange."
"Not too 'cramped' for your liking then?" Gwen asked boldly, and Martha and Toshiko had to refrain from laughing.
"Enough chat, I think." Jack interrupted, and the Doctor nodded.
"Yeah, so if you'd all like to follow me this way.." the Doctor headed out of the control room and up the stairs, the TARDIS humming happily at the visitors.
"What is that noise?" Toshiko whispered, since the rest of the group was in silence.
"That's the TARDIS." the Doctor replied loudly. "She's just saying hello."
The group ascended quietly again, with Ianto muttering "Hello." quietly to the ship.
"Right, here we are!" the Doctor said enthusiastically, stopping in the middle of a corridor and opening the door, a short while later. "After you." he said to everyone, and they all squeezed into the room with difficulty.
"This one's not bigger on the inside, then?" Owen asked as he walked into the room after Gwen. The door was left open when everyone was inside, so that the visitors could just about see the ripped, black, leather chair in the middle of the room, wired up to computers and monitors.
"No, but it's like this for a reason." the Doctor replied, as Jack moved forward to examine the fingernail scratch marks on the sides of the chair.
"And I'm guessing there's also a reason why we can't see a thing?" Owen added, talking to no one in particular, because he couldn't tell where anyone was, thanks to the dim, solitary light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
"Yep." the Doctor replied from somewhere in the room. "When you come back, it tends to give you a bit of a migraine. The darkness helps."
"Right, and that's when you come back from... where, exactly?" Owen asked.
"Parallel universe." the Doctor said casually.
"Sorry?" Gwen asked, confused.
"Parallel universe?" Jack asked pointedly. "I thought it was, well... blocked off?"
The Doctor led the way back out of the room and everyone followed, squinting slightly at the sudden change of lighting.
"It is." the Doctor replied, leaning against the cool wall of the corridor. "Kind of."
Martha cut in impatiently, sensing that the Doctor wasn't going to explain it simply, but try to be mysterious in front of the guests. "Basically, the chair allows you to cross planets. We reckon it was originally designed as a kind of communication method for aliens. And apparently it was designed to cross between universes too. So we thought it might work on parallel universes too. And it does. A bit." She paused.
"What do you mean: "A bit"?" Jack asked, frowning. "Surely it either works, or it doesn't."
"Well, that's the thing." the Doctor stood up off the wall and faced Jack, with the rest of the Torchwood team looking between them interestedly. "I can get through... but just as an image." he sighed. "Then, after a couple of hours, I just... fade away, and it brings me back to consciousness. Or, if Martha thinks something's wrong, she'll bring me back." He looked to Martha gratefully, but she looked away almost instantly, trying to forget the numerous scenes she had witnessed in that room.
"And that's what you need help with?" Toshiko asked, speaking for the first time since she'd met the strangers.
"Yeah." the Doctor sighed again. "Think you can help?"
Toshiko smiled. "I can try."
"Try?" Jack smiled warmly. "Tosh is our computer genius; she can do more than try."
Toshiko's cheeks flushed slightly from the flattery, and she smiled happily at Jack.
"That's what I like to hear." the Doctor smiled in return, leading the way back to the console room of the TARDIS.
"So, we're really doing this?" Martha asked excitedly. "You might actually get Rose back?"
"Yeah." the Doctor leaned back onto the centre mechanism and smiled. "I just might."
Firstly, I hope you liked the chapter. I know it was pretty uneventful, but trust me, I'm hoping I will more than make up for that in chapter 5.
Secondly, once again, please review with comments, criticisms; whatever. It only takes a minute!
Thirdly, how amazing is the new series of Doctor Who? =D I'm loving it, are you?