Team Torchwood like to feel in charge. At least in their own hub, they enjoy the feeling that no surprises are going to happen, no unexpected villains would jump from beyond the door — or under the sink - and surprise them. Most of all, they don't like feeling vulnerable in their own base. The truth is, of course, they are vulnerable, in more ways than even their long lived Captain can imagine — but they just don't like thinking about it too much. Or being given proof, such as a possible alien menace who's been given the chance to do more than his fair share of harm, showing up in the hub unexpected. Pubs are one thing — when seeing Bilis in the pub, the team immediately tried to contact Jack, and when they realised that wherever his radio was, it wasn't near his ear, they ran towards the Hub as fast as they could in order to alert him — and with the hope of advice. Even if, in all honesty, he didn't seem to know what to do himself the last time he's seen that particular creature.
But when Bilis showed up in their own base, well, that was something completely different. That was where they were safe, that was where they worked, that was where they hid a lot of valuable objects and alien artifacts and reports and generally didn't welcome aliens or strangers in — even if they had one in residence at that very moment. So, when the members of Torchwood realised their safe harbour had been infiltrated by the Alien Menace, they drew their guns — and so did Jack, even before Bilis finished speaking. The only people who remained weaponless were Rhys, who had no weapon and was far too drunk to use one effectively anyway; Martha, who was still confused but had been trained far too thoroughly by the Doctor on dealing with aliens to even consider reacting that way; and the Doctor himself, who's never let such an instinct be a part of him.
Instead, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, and with exclamations of "But this is impossible! Completely impossible! How d'ya do that?" jumped past Jack and down the stairs towards their new guest, and started flashing the sonic device at him.
Owen could swear he saw Jack rolling his eyes. Doctor, he tried calling, but the alien wasn't having any of that. Torchwood protocol? Regular procedures? Seven other people in the room? Who cares, he wasn't a part of Torchwood anyway and this was way too fascinating to give up in the name of caution.
But that's what you come to expect of the Doctor — even those of Torchwood who haven't known him for very long could already see the pattern. No, the surprise came from Bilis. He didn't seem intimidated — should be, Jack thought, but isn't, maybe not the clever time travelling alien bastard they thought he was, just a time travelling alien bastard. But he wasn't dismissing the Doctor, either.
"You're something new — no, different," he corrected himself as he seemed to look at the Doctor in a fascination that reflected the Doctor's own. "A — Time Lord?"
The Doctor, still talking at 90 miles-per-hour, but not fooling Jack or Martha too much, as they've seen this routine just too often, did his best to act harmless and entertaining — and surprised when he asked Bilis how did he know.
"I am what… might have been," Bilis said in his chilling voice. "I am what humans inside spheres are to you — and the two of you," he turned his gaze at Jack and Martha. In response, Jack just aimed his gun again at Bilis. Because yes, the Doctor recovered from the surprise quickly, did his best to act as if nothing's wrong, everything's fine, this is just a funny answer — but Jack knew Bilis saw that moment of shock, hesitation — and memory?
Hell, the rest of Torchwood saw it too. Owen and Gwen look at each other for a moment when he made that comment about Martha and Jack — but were visibly startled at the Doctor's reaction all the same, and it was only after seeing the Doctor that Ianto raised his gun again and Tosh edged just a little bit closer.
Even Rhys realised something here was wrong, but lacking a gun, training, or sobriety, he just walked a bit closer towards Gwen.
Jack tried to use the moment in order to regain some sort of control. "Explain to me why we shouldn't shoot you right here, right now," he said.
Bilis just chuckled. "First thing, Captain, I don't think you could — " and was gone, only to appear again a second later closer to Jack and past the rest of the team.
"How did he do that?" Rhys demanded, showing himself to be slightly less drunk than was previously assumed, while Bilis did not listen but continued talking — "And secondly, I'm afraid our previous encounter has been slightly... misunderstood."
"You mean you weren't fooling us into opening the rift and letting a great big demon out that can kill people with its shadow and setting it on Cardiff?" Owen was sober enough to ask.
"I was only trying to return the balance to the universe," Bilis replied, not looking at Owen but still at Jack.
"How do you mean, balance of the universe?" the Doctor asked sharply. "How was it unbalanced? I mean, I'm not an expert, but I usually notice when something — "
"The balance of temptation, of course," Bilis, despite speaking in a maddeningly slow pace himself, seemed to have realised that if he does not stop the Doctor's speech flow soon, he would never be able to get in a word. "The great beast was Abaddon's father, set in chains and forced to swallow the Bitter Pill, and then spit it all over again. But it was alive. Alive and setting its influence through the entire universe. But then, one day, it disappeared — ah!" Bilis, who was staring straight at the Doctor's face now, seemed to recognise a difference in expression. "I see the story is familiar. And when the great beast was destroyed, the universe was thrown into chaos, a chaos that could only be cured by freeing Abaddon, the son."
"What sort of balance?"
"Of everything," came the reply.
"What are you?" the Doctor demanded.
"But this is not the reason I've come here," Bilis smiled. "I came here because of the creatures you call — weevils, I believe."
"Weevils," Owen repeated.
Weevils, Martha and Ianto mouthed at each other.
"Weevils?" Tosh and Gwen asked, stunned.
"Those aliens, right? Face like a mask?" Rhys was becoming more sober by the minute.
"What could you possibly want with weevils?" Jack was trying to look for a new trick.
"Gitafanks, actually," the Doctor was standing perfectly still, not letting his eyes off Bilis, but his voice sounded casual. "From Giifa Three — or is it four, it was a bit of a blur."
"Giifa Four, indeed," Bilis confirmed. "They are seasonal creatures, they —"
"Yes," Jack stopped him, "we know all about that. Since when do you care about weevils?" And I'm not sure I believe your story just there, sunshine.
"As I said, Captain, it's a question of balance. They were supposed to go back home by now, but they are still in the vicinity of the Rift, here on Earth. Terrible things might happen on Giifa Four — and in this fair city — unless they're returned home."
"But you said fifty years," Jack looked at the Doctor for a moment.
"That's what I got from Janet. But I suppose… her being locked like that…"
"And your telepathic abilities?"
The Doctor nodded, unhappy. "I might have got it a bit wrong… even I can make mistakes! Although, not that many."
"Your telepathic abilities?" Bilis turned towards the Doctor, looking fascinated.
"I'm fine, thanks," the Doctor replied.
"No, but I can feel it. Something different, indeed. I might just be able to help you there."
Jack thought it was a bad idea. A really bad idea. One of those "we shouldn't kill the Master, we should save him" bad ideas. Or, as he tried pointing out to the Doctor with the help of his team members - Martha and Rhys excluded, because, well, Martha wasn't exactly a part of his team and Rhys was definitely not a part of his team and Jack was going to do his best to keep it that way — one of those "let's open the rift because of something a dubious alien has been telling us that has no confirmation at all and shoot our leader in the process" bad ideas. The Doctor sniffed a bit and pointed out that was rather dumb on the whole. And that he would never have done it, of course. Especially the shooting Jack bit — no, Doctor, Jack pointed out, you'll just abandon me in the future. The Doctor quickly changed the subject, but made it very clear that just like he refused to accept the concept of not killing the Master as a bad idea, he was refusing to accept this one. He won't let Bilis into the Tardis, he would watch his every step, and really, Jack, he's a Time Lord, he's been around for quite a bit, he knows what he's doing thankyouverymuch. But Jack wasn't so sure.
The Doctor needed his ship. The Doctor needed his telepathic abilities. And the Doctor, despite all the wonderful things he does and how he never hesitates before risking himself in order to save others from their own mistakes, is not infallible.
And this was a bad idea.
But they worked a bit, the Doctor and Bilis, about the telepathic problem. Officially, they were also working about the Weevil problem — no one at Torchwood Three was going to rename them to an alien name, they liked 'weevil' way too much for that — but both aliens seemed more interested in the cocktail of drugs that was inhibiting the Doctor's telepathic abilities. The Doctor kept on trying to extract information from Bilis, of course, about who he was and what was he doing there, but he didn't seem to be able to achieve much success — it seemed that, for the first time in his long life, the Doctor found someone even less inclined to talk about his past and origins than himself.
Serves him right, really. But it still made Jack uncomfortable.
They had some moments of peace. Bilis wasn't always there, in the Hub, and frankly that was just fine with Jack because having this thing around him all day long and all night long was making Jack itchy and jumpy and tense and as a result he was shouting at his team all the time and they didn't deserve it one bit. Well… not all of it, anyway.
Now seemed to be on of these moments of peace as Bilis said something about trying to implement the solution to the weevil problem he and the Doctor had been working on, and the Doctor seemed keen on joining him doing — well, whatever it was.
"Don't go with him," Jack said.
"Look, Jack, I told you, we need to — "
"I don't trust him and I don't want you alone with him."
"Jack, I can take care of myself and — "
" — and besides, this is Martha's last night here, and Tom's here and everything, it'd be nice if you said goodbye — properly this time, Doctor — instead of running away like you always do, and don't think I haven't noticed the timing and how you pushed to do this tonight out of all possible times."
The Doctor was silent for a moment. What was he thinking about? Jack wasn't sure. There were hints, every once in a while — like when he mentioned Tom, out of the blue — that the timelines didn't exactly converge, and Jack knew the Doctor would have been strictly against staying here for that reason alone had he had any say on the matter. Timelines and all. You know. But the Doctor had no choice, so he just refused to talk, knowing all too well how important it is to preserve timelines.
But he did seem a bit miserable around Martha. Oh, he trusted her completely. Absolutely. With everything. And he adored her, and Jack couldn't help but feel it was better that way, because the alien showed so much more respect than he had to this wonderful woman before, when they were running for their lives because of the Master. No longer did he shut her out — no, he talked to her as an equal now, and as openly as he did with Jack — as openly as the Doctor ever did, really. And that was good, all good.
But something was coming, and the Doctor was doing his best to run away again, as always.
"Fine," he said now, and went to tell Bilis. The other alien — the creepy alien, the one Jack understood even less than the Doctor because, really, after a century of studying him and several times travelling with him Jack had the mistaken impression he was 'getting' the Doctor now — didn't seem all that pleased, and tried to argue, but the Doctor threw one glance at Jack and didn't give up.
So Bilis disappeared on his own — just as the group came in from the surface, bringing Rhys and Tom with them.
"So this is where you work?" Tom asked, stunned.
"Well, not exactly work, I still work for UNIT, you know — just the temporary assignment."
"Stay," Jack rushed over towards them. "I'll fire Owen, he's a bit useless anyway — and not half as good looking!"
"Thank you, Jack, that was touching," Owen said and Tosh giggled.
"Really, I have the retcon in my office drawer. And while we're at it we could retcon Tom here and then you'll be all mine!"
"Jack," she laughed, and Tom just coughed, embarrassed.
"Oh, he's like that with everyone, don't mind him. Tom, this is Jack, and these are Gwen, Rhys, Ianto, Tosh and Owen — and the Doctor."
"Hello," the Doctor waved, still further away from the group.
"Come on, pizza should be here any moment."
X
"So then the Reverend says, Really, you can't believe any of this, surely, Lady Eddizzzzzon!"
"The killer was the Reverend, who was the half alien son of the Lady from an affair she had with a wasp," Owen said, doubtful.
"Yup," the Doctor confirmed and ate another slice of pizza and the rest just laughed.
"I'm not buying this," Owen retorted.
"Well, there are many impossible things in the universe — and a lot of them happen here on Earth, I mean, you humans," the Doctor replied.
"Yeah, like what?" Owen said.
"For example, take human mating rituals — no wonder Lady Eddison chose a waspiform, at least they tell you what they want, when they want, quite clearly. None of these hints and tests and dates and everything! So much simpler and so much less frustrating, and you don't end up with your situation of not going to a a date for — how long has it been now?"
"For your information," Owen said, doing his best to preserve his dignity, "only last week."
"What?" Gwen and Martha both jumped. "When? With whom?"
"Well — it was supposed to be a date anyway, but you people messed it up!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Owen — " Tosh said and Martha's hand flew to her mouth.
"Oh my — "
Gwen stared horrified at Tosh, and then at Owen. "You're kidding…"
Jack started laughing.
The Doctor, at least, had enough decency to look uncomfortable.
"We thought it was worth a try — but then you lot showed up as well, thank you Martha — an then your mate Bilis decided to crash the party so we figured, lost cause."
"For now," Tosh added.
"Besides," Owen continued, obviously uncomfortable with both Gwen's reaction and the various giggles around the room, "you with your Time Lord superiority, when was the last time you went out on a date, or had sex, or anything!"
Jack watched the Doctor trying to squirm his way out of this one with perhaps more vindictive pleasure than the Doctor was due.
"Well that's different. I'm the last of my species, you know. Oh, I don't know," he gave up after looking at Jack's expression, "two hundred years? Three hundred? Can't have been more than five hundred, at any rate."
"Five hundred years and you're lecturing me?"
"Nah, he's just a coward, at least you had the guts to try to get on a date," Jack answered for the Doctor — who didn't seem to care too much for the answer.
"Excuse me!" he protested. "As I said, I'm the last of my species — "
" — Not the case two hundred years ago — "
"And besides, it's not like I had the opportunity — "
"Rose, Martha, Me," Jack wasn't taking his eyes off the Doctor. The Doctor, on the other hand, was doing his best to look at any other direction. "You're probably just rusty and wouldn't know what to do anyway," Jack smirked.
"Humans! Just because you have nothing else on your minds doesn't mean the rest of the universe is falling behind, you know! Time Lords have been around for quite a while before you got out of your trees, and let me tell you something, some of the old traditions of Gallifrey could teach even you some things, Captain."
"Why don't you then?" Jack said in what was clearly a challenge, and all of a sudden the entire room went quite — until Ianto coughed.
"I'm going to get everyone some more coffee," he said and got up quickly, walking towards the small kitchen.
"Jack," Gwen was no longer laughing but staring coldly at her boss, "I think he could use some help."
"Yeah," Jack said absent-mindedly and got up as well.
"Well, that went well," Rhys commented, and Tom whispered to Martha, "Are they always like that here?"
"I'm afraid so," Martha sighed.
"No wonder you're not fighting UNIT too much about going back," he sighed as well, and Martha smiled mischievously at him. "Oh, there are a couple more perks to being in London," she said and he just laughed.
The Doctor reached for another slice of pizza.
X
"It's not like that."
"Would you like tea or coffee, Sir?" Ianto ignored Jack's tone and fished out some more cups.
"Ianto. It's not like that."
"You left us for him once already."
"And I came back. For you. I could have kept travelling with him — he offered, Ianto, damn it! I chose to come back because I wanted to."
"Jack, I thought things were going to be different now," Ianto said, finally turning around to face his boss and his lover. "I thought, yes, you came back, this time you were making an effort, I don't feel like I'm just here because you don't want to be alone. But ever since he came here, it's all been like — like before."
"I know, I know I've been neglecting you lately. I'm sorry. He's a friend, it's just that — "
"It's just that whenever Jack looks at me, he doesn't see what you think he sees," they both jumped as neither of them heard the approaching Time Lord. "When he sees me, he sees death, and destruction. And endless pain. Being dragged back to life over and over and over again into excruciating pain and when he was finally allowed to die it was only temporarily, only for the pain to come back again much much worse later. And then in the intervals — " the Doctor paused for a moment, deep in thoughts, deep in memories.
"The physical pain stopping only for him to see everything he cares about and everyone he loves turns to dust, suffering and dying, never ending, never stopping… It's not love and tenderness and adventure he sees when he looks at me, Ianto, don't worry. Do you have any tea?" the Doctor walked past the stunned couple, rummaged the kitchen for a clean cup and made a face when he could only found tea bags.
"Oh, well," he said, disappointed, "I guess that's better than nothing." He poured some of the hot water over the tea bag and walked out of the kitchen.
"Doctor," Jack called out after him but the Doctor kept on walking, and Jack gave Ianto an apologetic look and followed him.
"Right, so now I don't feel jealous, just really creeped out," Ianto said to no one in particular.
X
"Can you be a little more melodramatic?" Jack was chasing the Doctor back to the main room.
"I just wanted some tea," the Doctor said.
"You know what I'm talking about. Look, Doctor, no one's saying that year was easy - on any of us, I don't remember you were having a laugh the whole time — but — "
"Jack, it's over, it's done, it doesn't matter anymore. I was doing you a favour, you seemed to be in a bit of trouble with Ianto over there and I was just trying to calm him down."
"By being melodramatic?"
"By telling the truth."
"That's not the truth. And if you think — "
"Jack," the Doctor's shut-the-hell-up tone, and if they weren't watched by seven other people, Jack would have made it clear to the Doctor he wasn't taking any of that rubbish from him anymore, but the presence of his team, their husbands and boyfriends and Bilis Manger, made him decide to postpone the argument for later.
Just postpone it, he promised himself, but wasn't quite sure it was a promise he was going to keep.
"You're back," he told Bilis.
"How very perceptive of you," Bilis said in a tone of voice that suggested no sarcasm whatsoever, which made Jack hate him just a little bit more. It was, after all, impossible for him to be more suspicious of him.
"We still have weevils in the city," Jack pointed out.
"Indeed. I was unable to complete my task because I finally came up with a solution to the — other problem," and he showed them a sealed glass tube.
"What is this?"
"A solution to bind several Earth drugs together and counter their effects on the Time Lord brain — specifically, the telepathic centre in the frontal section of the brain."
"It's a telepathy cure," Martha said, and the Doctor just rushed towards Bilis, took the substance from his hands and ran towards Owen's autopsy room.
"He's going to run some tests now," Owen told Tom.
"I kinda figured that," was the reply.
X
The Doctor did run his tests, and none of them came back false, or wrong, or toxic, as Jack kept on suggesting behind his back.
"I don't think you should take anything this guy gives you," he suggested, and wished — and not for the first time — the Doctor would have been one of his men and he could just order him not to take this stupid, risky step. "He's got you right where he wants you and — "
"Jack, I just analysed this thing three times over. The worst thing that could happen would be that it would have no effect. The best would actually get me out of here. It's safe. Really. It is. And I think you of all people should know it's time I was gone already."
"Doctor, we don't want to — "
"Jack, I'm doing this, nothing would happen."
So Owen served as the Doctor's doctor once again, pouring the transparent liquid into a syringe and making sure it's inserted into the exact spot in the Doctor's neck he was shown.
And then they waited. And waited. And nothing happened.
"Is it getting better?" Jack asked the Doctor anxiously.
"Give it some time, Captain, let the drug do its work," Bilis said.
So they waited some more.
The first sign something went wrong was the thud that alerted the others to the Doctor, dropping unconscious on the floor.
The Second was Bilis' disappearance.
X
They'll be burying Chris now. Another of Torchwood's employees would get a real ceremony in a real church and be put in a real grave, six feet under, because they had no more room in their morgue to freeze agents. Gwen Cooper, the head of the Torchwood Institute, looked blankly at the watch, counting the minutes until the body is lowered to its final rest, and wondered when was it she learned to move on from death so quickly. Maybe it was when they lost Jack — oh, he wasn't dead, not really. He could never die. But he wasn't alive, either. He was in one of those cryogenic cells in the morgue, awaiting a time — what? A time she would know how to resurrect a man whose consciousness was lost inside a dead man's head? A time she could find out how to kill a man who can never die? Until then — whenever then would be and whatever would bring it — he was frozen. Maybe it was Ianto's death… Maybe it was Dave or Jeanie or… she didn't know. Gwen buried herself back in the paperwork, hoping to forget all of their names and faces, just for a little bit.
But she couldn't block out the commotion in the Hub as her team was coming back from the funeral. Getting up, ready to shout at them to keep it quiet, just for a bit, just today, because she's trying to work, damn it, she looked up and saw -
"Bilis," she whispered at the old man, whose face never changed.
"We found him lurking outside of the Hub," Marty said, a bit breathlessly.
But Gwen hardly looked at Marty, just at Bilis, who smiled at her in that warm and creepy way of his, that same smile she could never forget.
"My dear," he said, "did the Doctor's death have the results you were hoping for?"