There is a consistent hammering at the door which some how seems to be getting louder and louder. Jack shoots up in a sitting position rubbing his eyes, and grabbing his head, wincing in pain. He tries to figure out what is causing the noise and once he realizes it is the door he scurries out of the bed. As he stumbles into the living room he can hear the ipad buzzing, the iphone beeping and some other gadget chirping in the background. It's a noisy symphony of devicesassaulting his ears. Still unsteady on his feet he tries to carefully manouevre around the furniture. He was doing well until his big toe found the leg of the coffee table. He grabs his foot as a few obscenities spurt from his mouth. He hops the rest of the way to the door; his goal now is to just stop the banging. Still holding his foot he struggles with the lock until he finally releases it. Now unlocked the door flings open sending the already unbalanced man sprawling to the floor. Martha storms in and glares at him, her face tinged with anger.
"What the bullocks are you doing down there Jack, do you ever answer a phone?" Jack looks at her still a bit groggy, stands up and starts to speak to her when she suddenly whips around. He is puzzled until he realizes he is nude. In all the confusion he forgot to dress." Could you please put some clothes on."
"Oh sorry, don't you like what you see?" He stands there proudly all of his glory showing.
"You do remember I am married to Mickey, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," he rolls his eyes having been rejected. "Be right back," He turns and walks back to the bedroom to find Al still fast asleep. He finds a robe puts it around himself and walks back into the living room where Martha is retrieving his messages, all of which are from her, and finally silencing all the devices.
"What is so important you had to wake me up at, he glances at the clock, 5am!"
"No more goofing off Jack. We need to get to work, the new hub is almost complete and it needs someone to run it."
"Well then you run it." He says sarcastically.
"That's impossible, Mickey and I don't work for Unit or Torchwood, we're freelance now. Once the hub is complete we'll be off. The only reason we agreed to help is we knew one day you would be back, and you would respond better to a friendly face than just somebody from unit. You're here now and my task is almost finished, get your team together, get into the hub and get Unit out before it's too late. They are becoming way to comfortable in there. We need you now more than ever." Her face is very serious as her eyes begin to fill with tears.
Jack takes a deep breath closes his eyes a moment, then reopens them, puddles forming at the corners. "Martha I don't know if I can do this, I thought I could, but I have my doubts. " Jack feels his throat closing, his heart pounding against his chest trying to beat its way out; a panic attack looming on the horizon.
"You have to do it, there isn't anyone else."
"What about Gwen, she can run it."
"You haven't even tried to contact her have you? She's gone, her, Rhys, and the baby moved away. She now works at a training academy on the other side of London. Once you were gone she didn't hang around to wait for you to return. She couldn't get out of here fast enough."
"You have to do this, you must," Alonso's small voice came from the doorway of the bedroom. No one noticed he had been standing there listening. "You have told me how much Torchwood means to you, how important the work you do here is, now you must save it." He walks over and stands next to Jack.
"I am not sure I can."
"I have faith in you."
Martha pipes in too."I do as well."
Then it happens again, a warm firm hand grasps his, the warmth of it surging through his body filling it with a new found courage. His throat loosens and his heart slows as he begins to relax. He swallows as a smile begins to form on his face but not just any smile, this is his broadest, cutest, sexiest smile ever. It is so sunny and so hot, glaciers would melt instantly at just one glance. He turns to Al, then to Martha. "All right I'll do it but both of you will have to help me. Martha I'll need lots of information. I already know who I'd like to have on my team. Al, you will be in charge of the tech, you should go to the hub and get to work. I have a team to build so lets get moving!" Both hesitate as they try to adjust to the impetuous change that just came over him.
Jack and Al dress quickly, Al grinning like a Cheshire cat eager to get to work. Martha waits patiently as they grab toast and coffee then head for the door.
"So where do you want to start Captain?"
"I am going to need to call in a few favours, I know there will be some resistance. First I need the locations of all these people. "
Jack hands Martha a list, she looks over it and shakes her head. "This will never happen she will not agree to help you after what transpired between you two."
"Well I said I will call in a few favours, she is an officer and she will follow orders but lets start here." He points to a name on the list
"This should be an easy one, Lois Habiba, can you get me access to her?"
"Yes I don't think that is going to be a problem, she's currently in prison."
"Prison", he pauses, "for what?"
"Well for conspiracy, she did lie to top government officials but she got off easy. 5 years in a minium security facility."
"Doesn't sound that easy to me. I want to talk with her today set it up for me and I'll drive over there."
"Sure thing, and Jack?"
"Yes?"
"Try not to cause any trouble."
"Who me? Never." He grins wickedly.
They all rush out the door together, Jack leading the way and Martha pulling up the rear. For the first time in a long time he's not dreading the work ahead.
Martha smiles and announces loudly, "Look out world Captain Jack is back!"
As they reach the bottom floor and enter the parking garage the familiar black SUV is waiting. Jack yells for the keys and Martha tosses them to him. He opens the door slides behind the wheel and pats it gently, "I really have missed you baby." Slamming the door shut he starts it up.
"I'll drop you two off at the hub then I'm off too," he hesitates waiting for a response.
Martha taps on an ipad then shows it to Jack. "Here, I'll program it into the GPS."
"Okay, Lincolnshire it is."
Jack is on the move, so hate it love it, all feed back is appreciated.