N/A - if a lot of the dialogue in this one feels familiar, it's not you, it's me. An extra "I don't own it, and Chris Chibnall is responsible for some of the dialogue" disclaimer.
X
"Aspirin?" was Jack's first reaction as his team members explained what has happened.
"Humans! You're brilliant! Using a poison as a drug — you must be the only species in the universe to think of these things!"
"Yeah, well," Owen looked slightly pained. "It was Bilis, actually. And I was — where is he?"
They all looked around. Owen wasn't wrong — Bilis was gone, again.
"I don't care he just saved your life — "
" — Both our lives — "
" — Whatever. This guy is creepy and if we never see him again, all the better."
"Well, there's still the thing with the weevils — "
"Forget the weevils! Weevils aren't important, nobody cares about them! Nobody ever cares about the weevils!"
The Doctor looked almost offended by that comment. "I care about the weevils," he said pointedly.
"Right, sorry. It's just that it's — what time is it?"
"Half past 6. I think it's time everyone went home and got some sleep," Jack said to his team, who smiled in relief and said their goodnights — good mornings, in fact.
"What a mad goodbye party you had," the Doctor smiled at Martha.
"Yeah, the way things tend to happen around you. Goodbye, Doctor," she hugged him.
"Oh, you'll see me again, Martha Jones," he smiled back, and Martha and Tom were gone.
Outside of the Hub, the sun was already high in the sky.
X
Jack returned to the Hub after only a couple of hours. After a brief moment of considering going to his own bed, he decided to answer the invitation in Ianto's eyes and his carefully chosen words and go to his lover's bed, instead. But Ianto was exhausted after 24 hours of Torchwood Madness, the same way the rest of them were, so Jack didn't even wait for him to wake up. It's not that listening to Ianto's gentle snores wasn't fun — if Jack had to listen to anyone snoring, he'd rather it be Ianto — but he just wasn't in the mood for it today. Besides, the aliens don't care he gave everyone the day off. Experience has taught Jack never to assume he would get a nice day of peace and quiet just because he really, really wanted it. And since he didn't need as much sleep as the rest of his team, it made sense he'd stay. Someone had to.
He just assumed it was going to be him alone, not him and the Doctor.
"What are you still doing here?" he asked, unable to contain his surprise, when he noticed the Doctor leaning casually on the sofa, drinking a cup of tea and reading a book. A book which, on closer inspection, turned out to be the Torchwood Manual of Handling Extra Terrestrial Life Forms.
"Interesting read," the Doctor said dryly.
"We don't follow it anymore," Jack answered, and once again wasn't sure who he was angry with more — himself for not keeping this remnant of older, more unpleasant days away from the Doctor's hands, or with the Doctor — for avoiding the question, for acting as if he didn't know they don't follow this nonsense anymore, or for half a dozen other things he'd have been able to think of had he not been anxious about the Doctor's reaction to Torchwood's darker past.
Well, one of these things was definitely the way the Doctor raised his eyebrow just now and resumed reading in that arrogant superiority of his.
"I thought you're fine now. I was sure you'd be gone by the time I got back here."
"Well — " the Doctor sniffled, looking slightly uncomfortable and shifted his gaze from Jack to the books — to the Tardis.
"You know," Jack said, amused, "you're welcome to stay if you want."
"No, it's not that, I've had plenty of this place," the Doctor said immediately. And only as he kept on looking at Jack uncomfortably did Jack truly realise why he stayed.
"You wanted to say goodbye this time?"
"Well, I've been thinking, and you guys let me stay here all this time, I didn't want to be too rude, you know — "
"That's… thank you," Jack said, partly unable to stop his own surprise, partly delivering the Doctor from what was sure to become an even more awkward and uncomfortable attempt at not saying to Jack he does indeed care, after all.
"Thank you," the Doctor answered.
"Any time," Jack said and knew that, for at least now, this was goodbye again.
But he was wrong — just as the Doctor was getting up, Tosh's computer started beeping. The Doctor raised his eyebrow again — but this time in curios amusement, and the man and the alien walked towards the computer, that clearly showed four alien life forms in a warehouse, just outside of Cardiff.
"Do you know what they are?"
"No," the Doctor said, typing some commands into the computer, trying to decipher the signal.
"Care for one last adventure?" Jack asked with a big smile.
X
"Well?" Jack asked again, impatiently.
"They're not moving. It's like they're sitting in four different corners of the building, waiting for us."
Jack turned to look at the Doctor. "A trap?"
"Typical Torchwood! It looks like genuine life signs to me — maybe they're just stuck somewhere, or hurt, or performing the Beeyhanese mating ritual," the Doctor mused. "You always think it's a trap. When did you become so suspicious, anyway?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Jack asked — but with a smile. The Doctor smiled back after several seconds — too many to Jack's liking. But still, he smiled. "Anyway," he said, "I think we should stay together."
The Doctor just nodded, and they walked into the warehouse, towards one of the edges. Their alien stayed in its place the whole time.
It took them to actually get there to realise it wasn't an alien at all. It was a bomb. And even though they started running away as soon as they saw it, five seconds just weren't long enough.
X
"Ahhhh!" Jack breathed back to life, the weight of what felt like half the building on his stomach and legs — but no longer on his chest.
"I've got you, I've got you, it's alright," he could hear the Doctor's voice.
"What the hell happened?"
"It was a bomb. You were right, it was a trap, the whole building collapsed."
"Are you alright?" now that Jack could wriggle his toes and breathe a bit deeper, other concerns entered his mind.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Come on, let's get you up and out of here."
Once he was up, Jack took a moment to survey the tattered Doctor in front of him. "How is it," he started, "that when a building explodes on me I die, and when the same thing happens to you, you only end up with a torn suit and some bruises?"
The Doctor chuckled. "I think I have more experience in running away from the explosions," he said, something sparkling behind his eyes, before he turned to look at his suit. "Ah, I like this suit! Anyway, we better try and call the team, it took me a while to get back to it, I'm not sure how much time has passed. They might be worried."
"They're probably still sleeping," Jack said dryly as he did his best to dust his coat from all the debris.
"I don't think so," the Doctor started walking towards the exit. "As I said, quite a lot of time has passed."
He was proven right when the two walked outside — definitely later. And definitely no SUV. "What the — " Jack started, when his vortex manipulator bleeped.
"Er," the Doctor pointed out, as Jack pressed a button.
"Oh! Déjà vu! Or did I say that already."
Jack stared at the image appearing in front of him. "Someone you know, I take it?" The Doctor talked over some of Captain John's words. Jack was about to answer, but then —
"Oh, say hi to the family."
"No, it can't be… Gray?"
John talked some more. The Doctor tried to engage Jack in conversation, but Jack said nothing, could do nothing but stare at the image in front of him. The image of his long lost brother.
"Jack," the Doctor tried again, softly. But if he thought it'd end there, he was wrong.
"Okay, here's what's going to happen," the hologramme said in front of them. "Everything you love, everything you treasure, will die."
"Jack!" The Captain finally heard the Doctor. "We're going to stop him. Have you got that?"
"Yeah — yeah. Listen, talk to the others. Let them know, get them — "
"Rift activities, all over the city," the Doctor dug up one of his gadgets and looked at it critically. "We need to get the team moving."
"That's what I'm saying! Here, take this — " he handed the Doctor his earpiece. "Call them, get them moving, get everything under control."
"Why, where are you going?"
"I'm going to stop him. I was the only one who could ever control him. I know what I'm doing."
The Doctor nodded. "Okay. I'll take care of things here. But if we don't hear from you — "
"Feel free to mount a rescue mission," Jack smiled, despite everything. "I'm going to need a car…"
The Doctor looked at him for just another moment, walking towards the road to catch a ride before going back to the phone.
X
"There you go, pasta a-la Williams!" Rhys put one of the hot plates in front of Gwen, the other in front of his own empty seat. "Only the best to my superhero wife."
"Is this one of your mother's recipes?" Gwen poked her pasta doubtfully.
"Oy! That's an award winning pasta, you know!"
"Yes, I know," she sighed. "Your mum tells me the story every time they come visiting." Which is way too often, if you ask me, she thought but remained quiet.
"Well, it's a good story! You should have seen Mike's face when — "
The only thing Gwen could think when the phone rang was 'thank you, God'. If this is Jack with some crisis, she could kiss him. Well, she wouldn't, but she could —
"Sssh," she told Rhys off when he started ranting about how Jack can't stop calling her and on her day off and she's barely had time to sleep and he can't ask her to go to work today. He had a point of course, but at least she was saved from the Pasta Story. She'd be willing to go to work for that, and make it up for Rhys later.
"Hello?"
But it wasn't Jack on the other end of the line. It was the Doctor. Rhys stopped complaining at once when he saw her expression.
X
They saw the Doctor walking down the road several miles before reaching the location he's given them. Gwen wasn't surprised — he was hardly one to sit idle and wait for someone to come and pick him up. In fact, she was surprised he had let Jack go on his own at all — and it was obvious from the first moment he regretted it.
"Have you talked to the others?" she asked him as he climbed into the backseat of Rhys' small car.
"Yeah — they're looking at strange reports in the city itself. There was a major burst of energy earlier, probably Rift activity — that friend of Jack's?"
"Captain John," Gwen grimaced at the memory of the murdering madman.
"Should have gone with him — you guys need to go to the — "
Gwen's phone rang. Andy on the line, sounding even more nervous than he did when he first phoned her, half an hour ago. " — police station," she completed the sentence. "I know."
The Doctor didn't wait for her to sort out the weevils in the station. As soon as they got there, he left the two of them and started running towards the Plass. But he wasn't fast enough — when John's voice came through their earpieces, the Doctor's frustrated voice was heard almost immediately. But John didn't seem to listen to him.
"… if you don't you'll miss all the fun. By fun I mean carnage — I get them confused."
But even her deep worry for Jack was gone when Gwen saw the explosions. She was left with only sheer, unadulterated terror.
Her training kicked in soon enough. Before a minute had passed she was already calming everyone down, reminding them of their jobs, assigning tasks. But she did it on automatic. Her mind was blank. The only comfort she could rely on was the Doctor — and indeed, through her earpiece, she could also hear his instructions. He sounded like she did — calm, and confident, and in charge. And she couldn't help but wonder, maybe inside he's just as terrified as she was. But she preferred not knowing. That was why she really loved having Jack around — with all his experience, he never seemed to be as frightened as she felt. Always seemed to know what to do. And even he looked at the Doctor for instructions. Better believe this is just a normal day for the Doctor, just daily routine. Better than the alternative — it definitely sounded that way from some of his stories.
"Gwen? How are you getting along?"
Right now, in her ear, his voice sounded calm, and soothing, and sure it would be alright. And all of a sudden, she felt she could breathe again.
"Yeah, we're doing fine, I've asked all the officers to go out to the streets and calm everyone down."
"Good. That's good. I've told Owen and Tosh to go to Turnmill, we were getting some worrying signs from it — and Ianto's on the way over to help you with everything. It'll be alright," he added.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm almost at the Hub, I'm hoping I could track where Jack and John went with the Tardis. Good luck."
"I'm coming with you, she said."
He didn't even try to argue.
X
"My head!"
Gwen shot a glance at the alien and proceeded, a gun in hand. The Doctor tried to protest earlier, told her whatever was happening, going in with guns blazing wasn't the answer, but even he didn't seem to have the mood for arguing about weapons today. And she wasn't going to let her weapon — or her guard — down for a second, not if Captain John was around. She's had enough the last time.
"Ow, my head! What did he do, rip open the Rift?" the Doctor stepped inside, then froze. "Shh," he whispered urgently to Gwen. "There's someone here."
At that exact moment, she heard John's voice behind her. "You took your time," he said, and she turned around in a second and aimed her gun directly at him.
"On your knees!" She shouted.
The time agent just rolled his eyes. "Honestly," he said in mock complaint, "it's just sex, sex, sex with you people."
"Gwen," the Doctor stretched his hand, lowering her gun, and then walked straight towards John. She said nothing — she still had to fight the urge to shoot John dead on the spot, but so far, the Doctor seemed to know what he was doing.
"Where is he?" he asked John quietly, coldly, not removing his eyes off him.
"He's buried alive, somewhere beneath this city, I came back to help you!"
"You're lying," she blurted out. "You bombed this city." She raised her gun back at him — oh, if only the Doctor would get out of the way, and she'd give this bastard what he deserved.
"Listen to me!" John's eyes darted between her and the Doctor. "It's Gray, Jack's brother, that's been doing all this. He placed a bomb on me, molecularly bonded detonator on my skin."
At this, the Doctor jumped towards him, grabbed his wrist, and looked at it. "He's telling the truth, Gwen," he said after a short inspection. "Lower your gun."
"I didn't have to come back here," John said, looking relieved. But Gwen refused to drop her weapon. She got burned once, trusting him, and it almost ended in a disaster. She never would again. "He freed me, told me I could go everywhere I wanted," John tried again. "I could have run, but I chose to come back here."
"Let's — let's assume he's telling the truth. Just this once."
"He thought I was the rescuing hero…" John seemed to be trapped in memory. And then — he screamed in pain, a scream that turned into a laughter. "The molecules are unbonding," he smiled in pain and grabbed the device on his wrist. "Just — like — he promised." He looked at the two of them again. "Free man. Apparently."
"Okay, how do we find Jack then?" the Doctor demanded, and John told him of the isotope, that ring he planted on Jack.
But the scan showed up nothing.
"What?" John looked at the computer screen, then back at the Doctor. "You must be doing something wrong — the transmitter was guaranteed for five millennia!"
"What is it? Where is he then?" Gwen demanded. But the Doctor just smiled a small, weird smile.
"He's no longer there," he said. "He's never been there. When did you say he was buried?" he turned to John.
"Cardiff, first century — but I don't have my vortex manipulator, we can't go back there on our own!"
"Oh, yes we can," the Doctor's face broke into a huge smile and he ran towards the Tardis. "I could use your help," he said from the door. "You know where he is."
"Doctor," Gwen warned.
"I'll be alright. Listen, you stay here, if anything happens, if Gray comes back…" he stepped back from the Tardis towards her. "Someone has to know what's going on, warn the others, do something. You'll do great. Just… be careful."
"Bring him back," she said, at last.
"Yes, Ma'am," he smiled, and entered the Tardis back with John.
Fortunately, Gwen didn't have to sit and do nothing for long. Tosh had contacted her shortly afterwards. She and Owen had reached the Turnmill station, just as the Doctor instructed. And then the weevils showed up.
"Well, this is… different," John commented as the noise of the engines grew stronger and movement could be felt. The Doctor didn't bother answering, just kept on pressing buttons on the console.
"Where did you get this?" John tried again.
"My home planet," the Doctor answered shortly, still doing his best to ignore John.
"And where would that — "
"You're here to help me locate Jack, nothing more," the Doctor said curtly and turned his back at John again.
"Okay," John said quietly. Better not alienate a man who could leave him behind two thousand years into this planet's primitive past.
But when they got there, the Doctor seemed a lot less hostile. And now, he could pick the signal John described loud and clear. Out of seemingly nowhere he grabbed two shovels, and the both of them started digging.
X
Wake up. Something in his mouth. Can't breathe. No air. Can't cough. Can't move. Wake up. Can't claw it away. No air. Wake up. Can't move can't breathe wake up all dark wake up can't cough it out can't move wake up no air no air wake up no air "Ahhh!"
"It's okay, you're fine, breathe, just breathe now, that's the spirit, it's okay."
Jack didn't even say anything. Air. It felt like forever. He couldn't breathe. Just the dirt, time and again, in his mouth, in his nostrils, in his eyes… he grabbed the Doctor and just kissed him.
"What was that for?" the Doctor seemed surprised — and somewhat concerned.
"Just glad to feel alive again," it didn't sound like his own voice, just a deathly whisper, hoarse and difficult. Someone else put a bottle of water into his hand, and he realised he was thirsty, so thirsty… half the bottle was gone before he felt the need to breathe again.
"Thanks," he whispered in a voice that sounded more like his own and looked up to see — John. "Thanks," he said again.
But then it all came back to him. "Gray!" he said and tried to get up — only to fall again.
"Whoa, careful, it's okay," the Doctor caught him and tried to help him up. "We've got the Tardis here, you can take all the time you need."
Even if Jack could master his voice, he would have had a hard time voicing his gratitude to the Doctor.
After a while, he managed to sit up. Another water bottle found its way into his hand, and something to eat. And as his voice came back to normal, he told the Doctor the story of his brother — with John filling in the details he was unaware of. The Doctor nodded every once in a while, deep in thought. But he said nothing, and after a while Jack ran out of things to say, too.
X
They had all the time in the world, but it seemed the Tardis had a sense of timing of its own — as always, really. The noise of the Tardis had distracted Gray just in time to stop him from shooting Gwen, and out of instinct, without a thought, Jack had raised his gun and shot her assailant, his brother.
The Doctor stayed behind, leaned on the Tardis, as he watched his friend rushing towards the fallen man, trying to undo his actions. "It's okay, it's okay, I've got you," Jack whispered, but his aim was too good, and he knew it. And if the Doctor remembered a similar time where their roles were reversed, he said nothing.
Gwen, shaken but very much alive, joined him and John next to the Tardis in silence, staring at her commander as he cradled his dying brother. After a moment, Ianto showed up as well.
It was a long time before Jack let go of the lifeless coprse.
Eventually, he rested the head down gently, so gently, closed his brother's eyes, and turned to wipe his own. None of his friends knew what to say — but as soon as one of them opened his mouth to speak, something else had caught Jack's attention.
"Where are Owen and Tosh?"
Ianto and Gwen exchanged looks, puzzled. They should have been there by now.
"Owen," Gwen touched her earpiece — but it was dead. Something in the Hub was blocking the signal. The Doctor jumped, pressed a key on the computer, and then pressed his own earpiece, the one he took from Jack.
But before he could say Tosh's name, they heard her voice.
" — that date. I guess it just wasn't meant to happen."
"Yeah," Owen replied, wherever the two of them were.
"Tosh?" the Doctor asked softly.
"Doctor," she seemed to have whispered on the comm. "Is he okay?"
"I'm here, Tosh," Jack took the earpiece from the Doctor.
"Good," she said, still so very quietly. "That's good."
"Tosh, where are you?"
"There was a meltdown, in Turnmill. Me and Owen — "
"We can't get out, Jack," Owen's voice again.
The five people in the Hub looked at each other in horror. The Doctor already started walking towards his Tardis, when they could hear an alarm over the comm, and Owen's voice.
"It's starting. Oh, God, it's starting — "
"It's alright," Tosh's voice was muffled, as if buried, and Jack could imagine his two team members holding each other, trying to die just a little less alone. "It's alright."
He looked at the Doctor in horror, his expression urging the time traveller to save the day one more time, but there were things even beyond the Doctor's ability to heal. The earpieces went dead.
X
They all sat in silence, waiting for the blue box to reappear in the Hub. None of them said a word, not even John. But Jack didn't really know what they were waiting for. Indeed, he felt no surprise, only emptiness, when the box finally reappeared, only five minutes later, even if it did feel like so much longer, and the Doctor stepped outside, hair slightly burned, suit more tattered than he remembered, and said that he was sorry, so sorry. Gwen started crying, Ianto sat down heavily, John didn't dare to look in his eyes, and Jack just nodded, unable to speak.
John left first. Jack wouldn't bury Gray's body - only freeze it, together with the other bodies, the bodies of those young men and women who worked in Torchwood this past century — those of them who had a body to be frozen. He ignored John pointing out there was no point to this gesture, that even if something could be worked out, Gray would still be just as wounded and mad. But Jack couldn't bring himself to do anything else. There was something comforting in freezing the body, he thought darkly. Funerals were so final. In the end, John gave up. He hugged Jack, then kissed him, and just disappeared without another word to the rest of the group.
The Doctor surprised Jack again. He stayed a little bit longer.
Just a little bit, though. They were packing Tosh's things, Owen's already in a box, to be stored in the Torchwood Archives, when the computer screen kicked back to life, showing them Tosh's image, talking about toasters and Torchwood and Owen. He smiled in fondness at his dead colleague as the tears ran down Gwen's cheeks freely. None of the three Torchwood survivors noticed the sad look in the Doctor's eyes as he considered them one last time, or heard the ancient engines of his spaceships.
It was ten years before Gwen saw him again.