A/N: Happy Valentine's Day everyone. 3
"He said, 'Whot's that on your head, mate?' And Rose – "
"Theta Sigma," Jack declared, "We're stuck in a time loop."
The Doctor broke off in midsentence, not even remembering to close his gaping jaw. He couldn't have looked more shocked than if Jack had sprouted a second head.
Rose, who had initially been startled by the sudden change in surroundings, added, "Susan Foreman." Her lips twitched at the Doctor's expression.
"What?" At the name, the Doctor turned positively white. "What? How do you know – "
"Don't fight," Jack said quickly, keeping one eye on the Muerton behind Rose. "Trust us, breathe it in and don't fight."
"Breathe what in?" the Doctor asked, looking even more bewildered.
The Muertons descended, and the Doctor soon discovered exactly what to breathe in.
In the cell, the uninjured Doctor absorbed their quick summary of their situation in silence. His only interruption arrived when Jack reached the part about his regeneration, when he leaned forward, eyes alive with interest.
"Was I – "
Jack didn't give him time to ask. "No, you weren't ginger, no, you weren't taller, bigger chin, no sideburns, looked about twelve, Rose still loves you, and you wouldn't shut up about apples and fezzes."
The Doctor blinked. "Blimey, we have had this conversation before."
When Jack and Rose had finally finished, the Doctor rubbed his face, thinking hard. "Right, then. How long did you say we've got before they come for me?"
"Couple minutes more, maybe."
The Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver and ran it over the length of the room, then inspected the tool closely. "No weaknesses sensed," he announced.
"You tried that," Rose reminded him, "We tried it already."
The Doctor hit the screwdriver into his palm repeatedly. "I might not be able to pick it up on the scan, but that might be because it's being blocked." He licked the wall, then made a face. "Bilitane, yep. Just like I thought, blocks the scan from seeing what's behind it. A sort of lead to my sort of super x-ray vision. I could resonate it, though, break through in about thirty minutes."
Jack groaned. "You don't have thirty minutes."
"But you do. Take it." The Doctor held the screwdriver out to him. "Setting 458-B."
"But how do we get you out?" Rose asked as Jack took it.
"If we really are in a time loop, it might take you a few tries…sorry." The Doctor pressed his ear against the wall and tapped it in a couple of places. "I'd try right about here." He pointed, frowning.
Jack flicked the screwdriver on and pressed it to the wall.
"Perfect. Hold it right there," said the Doctor. "Best I can do without knowing whose prison this is…Certain species' prisons may have certain weaknesses. If I knew who captured us…" He stuck his hands in his pockets. "Ah, well. Nothing I can do about it right now. I don't suppose I've yet figured out how I'm supposed to be creating this time loop?"
Jack shook his head. "You just said that it would require another Time Lord. And you were sure there weren't any."
The Doctor nodded. "There definitely aren't."
Jack sighed. "So you say."
"Yes, so I say," the Doctor insisted. He counted off on his fingers, waving his hands around wildly. "Right, so I need to know one, who is commanding the Muertons so I can figure how to break out of this cell, two, what I did to get us into this in the first place, and C...No, sorry, three, I need to know how I'm going to create a time loop, because I have absolutely no idea. None. Nada. Zip. Three I'm going to have to just figure out on my own, because apparently I've done it before anyway. One and two, you'll have to figure out somehow. Questions, anyone?"
"Doctor, who's Susan Foreman?" Rose asked.
The Doctor stiffened, Adam's apple bobbing up and down, feet rooted to the spot.
"I'm sorry," Rose said quickly, "It's just….was she a companion?"
"Yes." The sound came out strangled. "No. More than that."
"Oh," Rose said softly. She bit her lip. "Well, you've probably loved someone before me, and I'm sure you'll love someone after me, and I was just…wondering…if she…" She took a deep breath. "If she might be one of them."
The Doctor's haunted eyes blinked, and it seemed to break the paralysis. "Oh, Rose, I…Susan is…I mean…" His words dwindled to a whisper. "Susan was my granddaughter."
Jack stared at the Doctor. He'd known the Time Lord was impossibly old and had lost all his people, but it had never occurred to him that the Doctor had had family. And not even children…grandchildren…
He'd never realised the Doctor had gone through the exact same thing he had, outliving even his own descendents.
Rose covered her mouth, clearly regretting having asked.
The awkward silence was broken when footsteps sounded in the hallway. Jack flicked the screwdriver off and stuck it in his pocket.
The Doctor clapped his hands together, all traces of mourning gone. "Right, you two, it's been exactly five minutes and thirty-three seconds since I woke up, and you two took about another fifteen seconds. For future reference." The stomping came closer, and the Doctor spoke faster, antsy hands gesturing in increasing agitation. "Take care of each other, keep resonating the wall, don't do anything I wouldn't do, be brilliant, and look at me, I'll just pull a time loop out of nowhere."
Rose placed a hand on his shoulder. "You can do it," she stated simply and calmly.
"How?" He asked, voice hollow. "It's impossible."
She grinned. "I've seen you do loads of impossible things. What's one more?"
The door crashed open, the Muertons poured in, and the Doctor pasted on a smile and waved. "Hello."
"Take the Time Lord."
"Oh, am I off to a party?" the Doctor asked brightly. "I love a good party."
The Muertons did not respond as they seized him.
"Life of the party, me," the Doctor continued as they dragged him out of the cell. "Tell me this party has bananas! It's not really a party without a banana you know…"
Once the door shut behind them, Jack whipped the screwdriver back on and resumed pressing it at the wall.
Rose pressed a hand to the door, frowning in confusion. "They didn't hesitate this time."
"What?" asked Jack, not really listening. His thoughts flew everywhere, solving the Doctor's "one" and "two."
"The Muertons," Rose mused, "They hesitated last time, didn't they, before they took the Doctor?"
He nodded absent-mindedly, absorbed in his own thoughts. "Yeah…"
Resonating the wall was not an activity for the hyper, Jack found. Aside from the slight buzz, the sonic screwdriver didn't seem to be doing anything. He declined Rose's offer to do the resonating for awhile, though, simply because there wasn't anything else to do. At least holding the screwdriver to the wall gave him some sort of purpose.
"What if we don't break through in time?" Rose asked, peeking over his shoulder for what seemed the thousandth time. "Shouldn't we have some sort of plan B?"
"Yeah, I've been thinking about it," Jack admitted, "And I think I've got an idea."
"Which is…?"
Jack sighed. "Well, you probably won't like it…Basically, I'm going to kill myself."
Rose's lips pinched together. "Yeah, don't like it. How's that supposed to help? Don't really fancy waiting for the loop to repeat with your corpse."
"No, I mean in the restaurant, right before the Muertons come. I die, they take you and the Doctor and leave my body in the restaurant..."
Rose's face relaxed as she warmed to the idea. "You wake up and find out where we've gone?"
"Exactly. Or figure out who hired the Muertons."
"And you'll be out of range!" Rose realised excitedly. "And I can tell the Doctor what's going on, keep him from being tortured, and then the loop will reset again…"
"And then I can tell the Doctor who has us and where we are," Jack finished with a grin, buoyed by Rose's excitement.
Rose's excitement dimmed as she surveyed the sonic screwdriver pressed to the wall with a critical eye. "Still rather get out now, though. If we don't find the Doctor our first go, we'll give Plan B a try, yeah?"
"Sounds good."
More minutes passed, and the wall remained smooth and blank. Rose sat against the opposite wall, arms wrapped around her legs, and rested her head on her knees. She muttered slightly to herself, and Jack knew she was practicing the quickest summary of their situation to tell the Doctor, just in case.
As the minutes crawled by and he stared at the unyielding wall, Jack found his thoughts drifting to wherever the Doctor was.
"He's fine," Rose said suddenly, as if knowing what Jack was thinking. "He's gotta be. He's not injured and they're not torturing him…" She trailed off a moment. "He's just…talking. Letting his gob loose. 'S better than his legs at running." Her voice lost confidence with each word. "Probably talking their ears off…"
In the meantime, the Bilitane cracked loudly. Discomforting thoughts forgotten, Rose leapt to her feet and rushed to inspect the crack with Jack. Together they shoved their fingers inside, widening the hole until it was the size of both their heads put together.
Jack nearly laughed in relief. The jagged wires laced through the inside of the wall were things he recognized.
"What is it?" Rose wondered.
"It's set up just like the Time Agency's bunker," said Jack happily, reaching for a pale blue wire. "This one's for the door. Just yank this out and we're out of here!"
He yanked the wire, and the pain was instant, red-hot knives stabbing up his arm and into the rest of him before he had time to think. His body jerked and shuddered, still clinging to the wire, blinded to everything but pain, pain, pain, Rose's scream, and the crushing oblivion.
A/N: You know what would be the best V-day present ever? *nudge nudge*