Rejected Bonds

Summary: Hermione hasn't seen the Doctor in almost seven years, until an attack at work sends her back in time and into the arms of Jack Harkness. Soon joining up with the Doctor and Rose, Hermione realizes the Doctor is denying their bond in favor of her cousin. Sequel to No More Running, with major episode spoilers.

A/N Posting this a bit early, but I'm anticipating a crazy day so I'd rather get it up for people to enjoy earlier rather than later.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Doctor Who.

Episode Spoilers: The Doctor Dances S1E10

Rejected Bonds - Chapter 2, The Doctor Dances

As the horde of gas mask patients drew nearer, the Doctor took a bold step forward, stood tall, and sternly faced them. "Go to your room." As all of the patients stood still, he continued, "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!" The patients all hung their heads in shame and shuffled back to their beds. Letting out a huge sigh of relief, the Doctor turned to Rose, Jack, and Hermione, "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."

Stepping near a bed, but careful not to get too close, Rose asked to no one in particular, "Why are they all wearing gas masks?"

Jack was quick to respond, "They're not. Those masks are flesh and bone."

Rose looked horrified and Hermione hugged herself.

The Doctor turned to Jack, "How was your con supposed to work?"

"Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

The Doctor scoffed, "Yeah. Perfect."

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it, though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day," Jack laughed. Even Hermione sent him an exasperated look. He wasn't aware, but she'd been through volcano day and it hadn't been remotely amusing. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

Getting angry, the Doctor gestured around, "Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty," Jack defended.

The Doctor explained to Rose that they were going upstairs while Jack continued to defend his actions, "I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

The Doctor turned to look at him and sneered, "I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."

As the all clear siren sounded outside, signaling the end of the air raid, the group left the ward.

The Doctor stalked off up the stairs, Hermione at his heels, following silently. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes several times, trying to figure out what her part in this con was supposed to be, but frankly had bigger concerns. Jack and Rose finally caught up to them outside of a secure metal door. The Doctor turned to Jack, eyes narrowed, "The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."

"What happened?" Hermione asked softly.

"Let's find out. Get it open," he said to Jack, gesturing towards the locked door.

Rose looked askance at the Doctor, "What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?"

"Nothing," he smiled.

As Jack's blaster disintegrated the lock, the Doctor was able to identify it, and when in time Jack originally came from. "Sonic blaster, fifty-first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"

"You've been to the factories?"

"Once."

"Well, they gone now, destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

Smirking smugly, the Doctor expanded, "Like I said. Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."

Hermione bit her lip to keep from laughing both at the Doctor's instance that weapons were bad, and Jack's affronted look.

The group entered a room that looked to have been torn apart. Filing cabinets, electronics, everything had been overturned or destroyed, including a large observation window that looked into a room scattered with a child's crayon drawings. The Doctor began fiddling with a recording device and turned his head towards Jack and Hermione, "What do you think?"

Jack looked shocked at the scene, "Something got out of here."

"Yeah. And?" The Doctor rolled his eyes.

Hermione knelt down to examine the drawings, all of a female figure, "Something powerful. Angry."

"Powerful and angry," the Doctor repeated.

Jack asked, "A child? I suppose this explains Mummy."

Looking at the devastation of the room, Rose wondered aloud, "How could a child do this?"

Finally getting the tape playing they listened to the recording of Doctor Constantine and the child.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Are you my mummy?"

"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see?"

"Are you my mummy?"

"What do you want? Do you know?"

"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

Rose's eyes widened, "Doctor, I've heard this voice before."

Nodding, "Me too."

"Always are you my mummy? Like he doesn't know. Why doesn't he know?"

The recording continued playing in the background, the child always asking, "Are you there, mummy? Mummy?"

Rose and Hermione were looking at the Doctor who had a growing look of dread on his face. "Can you sense it?"

"Sense what?" Jack asked.

"Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it? Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?"

Sighing, Rose looked at Jack, "When he's stressed, he likes to insult species."

Hermione stayed silent, goosebumps lining her skin as she felt what the Doctor felt. Tingles of fear stop up and down her spine. Sliding her wand back into her hand as a precaution she edged towards Jack.

The Doctor gave Rose a glare, "Rose, I'm thinking."

Yet she continued, "He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than."

"There are these children living rough around the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food. Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med-ship. It was harmless," Jack tried explaining once more.

"Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

"Altered how?" Rose questioned.

No one seemed to notice the tape running out in the background, but Hermione was so alert her hair was starting to frizz with excess magic from her stress and fear.

"I'm here!"

"It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."

"Doctor."

"I'm here. Can't you see me?"

"What's that noise?" Rose complained.

"End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago," he noticed Hermione staring behind him, eyes wide, knuckles white around the stick she held.

"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?"

The Doctor looked horrified, "I sent it to its room. This is its room." He spun around and they all looked wide-eyed at the small child standing there, face obscured by a gas mask.

"Are you my mummy? Mummy?"

Jack stepped forward, reaching into his jacket for his blaster, "Okay, on my signal make for the door."

"Mummy?"

"Now!" Jack shouted, pointing a banana at the child. Confused he stared at the banana as the Doctor pulled his blaster from his own belt and makes a huge square hole in the wall.

"Go now! Don't drop the banana!"

"Why not?!"

"Good source of potassium!"

At that the combination of stress, fear, and sudden adrenaline caused Hermione to snort a giggle.

Jack reached for his blaster, "Give me that!"

"Mummy. I want my mummy."

Jack used his blaster to repair the hole in the wall, explaining, "Digital rewind. Nice switch."

The Doctor grinned, "It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate."

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"

"Bananas are good."

There was a large bang on the wall they just came through and the plaster started to crack.

Rose was starting to panic, "Doctor!"

"Come on!" They started down the hallway but patients were coming from each possible escape route.

"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

"It's keeping us here till it can get at us."

"It's controlling them?" Jack was waving his blaster back and forth but not firing. Hermione wasn't waving her wand around but she was ready to fire spells if the patients came any closer.

"It is them. It's every living thing in this hospital," the Doctor explained.

Accepting the situation, Jack was desperately thinking of a way out, "Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic, er. Oh, never mind."

"What?"

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."

"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!"

"A sonic what?!"

"Screwdriver!"

As the child broke through the wall Rose grabbed Jack's blaster and pointed it at the floor, "Going down!"

Jack quickly repaired the hole in the ceiling as he scrambled to his feet.

They soon realized this ward was filled with patients as well when they all sat up and started their chant of "Mummy. Mummy." Racing to the nearest doors Jack tried to disintegrate the lock, but the blaster wouldn't work. "Damn it! It's the special features. They really drain the battery."

The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door and they all rushed into a storeroom.

Rose looked at Jack incredulously, "The battery? That's so lame!"

"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory," Jack glared at the Doctor.

Rose laughed, "Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates."

Hermione rolled her eyes. This is not the time to be flirting!

The Doctor locked the door once more with his sonic screwdriver and turned to the others, "Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door? The wall didn't stop it!" Jack exclaimed.

"Well, it's got to find us first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves," Jack retorted sarcastically.

"Window," the Doctor ran to check it out.

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."

"And no other exits," Rose noted.

"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack made a face, sitting down in a nearby chair.

While the others bickered Hermione subtly threw a quick colloportus and duro at the door to seal and strengthen it. Anything to give them more time.

The Doctor was fast becoming annoyed with Jack's attitude and glared at Rose, "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"

"Doctor," Rose warned, she didn't like his tone.

Jack smirked fondly, "She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance."

"Okay. One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

Rose sighed, "Yeah. Jack just disappeared."

Hermione glared at the spot Jack had previously occupied. Prat! Why did he leave me here!?

Rose grouched, "Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."

"I mean, men."

"Okay, thanks, that really helped," he replied sarcastically.

The radio crackled to life and Jack's voice came out of the tinny speakers, "Rose? Doctor? Hermione? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry, I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there." Hermione scoffed, knowing he could have taken her too. She suspected he was trying to force her to talk to the Doctor, though.

Addressing the radio, the Doctor asked, "How're you speaking to us?"

"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill."

"Now there's a coincidence. The child can Om-Com, too."

Rose was surprised, "He can?"

The Doctor nodded, "Anything with a speaker grill. Even the TARDIS phone."

"What, you mean the child can phone us?"

The child's voice broke through the speaker and singsonged, "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you, mummy."

Jack broke back through, "I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do." A moment later Moonlight Serenade played through the radio, making Rose smile and Hermione roll her eyes. "Remember this one, Rose?"

"Our song."

With the music playing gently in the background, Rose relaxed in a wheelchair as the Doctor fiddled with his sonic screwdriver and the barred window.

"What you doing?" she inquired, quickly growing bored.

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars."

"You don't think he's coming back, do you?"

"Wouldn't bet my life."

At this Hermione couldn't keep quiet anymore. "Jack isn't going to just leave us here! He'd never just leave someone behind," she declared with a bit of a glare at the Doctor, thinking of seven years of no contact from her Doctor. He was baffled by the vehemence behind her words. She'd been sitting along the wall so quietly he'd quite forgotten that she was there.

"So who are you exactly Hermione? You're not from here either, and you're not a conman like Jack. What's your story?"

Rose rolled her eyes and glared at the pair.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Hermione said, raising her chin challengingly.

"Try me."

"Okay, fine! My real name is Hermione Granger. There was an accident at my work that sent me back in time to 1941 from 2005. Jack saved me."

"Accident at your work? From 2005? Where do you work that you're messing about with time travel?" the Doctor asked disbelievingly. Rose was gaping, having recognized the name of her cousin. Looking at her consideringly she could start to see the resemblance to the last pictures she'd seen of her cousin several years ago, but all grown up.

"I'm an Unspeakable with the Ministry of Magic. I'm a witch."

Laughingly, the Doctor rolled his eyes, "There's no such thing as witches."

Huffing, Hermione brandished her wand and produced a flock of canaries which then proceeded to swoop towards the Doctor before she vanished them.

"Nice trick, but still don't think you're a witch."

This time Hermione just glared at him, "Fine then, I don't need to sit around and put up with this. Enjoy your wait, I'm going to help Jack," turning to her cousin she nodded her head, "See you again soon, cousin."

She turned sharply and disappeared with a pop, startling the Doctor and Rose.

Running over to the spot she occupied and scanning it with his screwdriver, the Doctor wondered aloud, "Where'd she go? How'd she do that!? Wait! Cousin?" He turned to look at Rose questioningly.

"Uh, um, uh, well-" she tried speaking. "Well I do have a cousin, and her name is Hermione Granger, but I haven't seen her in ages so I don't know if that was her or not. Could've been I'spose."

"You don't know what your own cousin looks like?"

Feeling a bit offended, she explained, "She's my cousin through my dad's side. You met her at the wedding, she was there with Mickey." The Doctor's eyebrows shot up in remembrance of the curly haired little girl. "After he died my mum and her mum fell out a bit. Exchange cards and pictures at Christmas and stuff but we don't see them much. Last I heard Hermione was at some fancy boarding school up North. Haven't seen her since Christmas like a decade ago."

"So you don't know if what she said is true? That's she's a witch?"

"No clue, but like I said, haven't seen her in ages."

They fell into an awkward silence before Rose asked, "Why don't you trust Jack?

"Why do you?"

"He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing. What?" The Doctor had a pinched look on his face.

"You just assume I'm-"

"What?"

"You just assume that I don't dance."

"What, are you telling me you do dance?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced."

"You?"

"Problem?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?"

"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast."

She turned up the volume on the radio, turned to the Doctor and held out a hand, "You've got the moves? Show me your moves."

"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete."

"Jack'll be back. He'll get us out. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."

Looking at the hands she was holding out to him, he grabbed them and examined her palms, "Barrage balloon?"

"What?"

"You were hanging from a barrage balloon," he looked at her for confirmation.

"Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest."

"I've traveled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly."

"Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes," she teased.

"Hanging from a rope thousands of feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise," he was still holding her hands, turning them over and back.

"Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up."

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"

"Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain."

"He's not really a Captain, Rose," the Doctor scoffed.

"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy," she replied, taking his hands back in hers and placing them about her to dance. "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."

"If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked."

"Yeah? Shame I missed that."

The dancing couple never noticed their change of location. Jack's voice interrupted their staring at each other, "Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock. Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is," the Doctor remarked, looking around to assess the ship.

"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes," Jack quipped with a smirk.

"This is a Chula ship."

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."

The Doctor snapped his fingers and they were surrounded by the same glow that had healed Rose's hands earlier.

Her face lit up, "They're what fixed my hands up Jack called them er-"

"Nanobots? Nanogenes."

"Nanogenes, yeah."

"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulkhead's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." Turning to Jack he ordered, "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

Jack rolled his eyes, "As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."

"We were talking about dancing."

Jack smirked at the pair, "It didn't look like talking."

Rose looked at the Doctor with a pout, "It didn't feel like dancing."

Hermione just sat on the bunk pretending to read while grinding her teeth.

Going up to Jack in his chair at the console, Rose decided to ask, "So, you used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?"

"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."

"What for then?"

"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back. Hermione took a look around my head, and let me tell you that was a weird experience, but she says they're not there at all. Completely removed."

The Doctor was looking at Hermione pretending to read, wondering about her ability to see inside someone's mind. Maybe there was something special about her DNA that made her telepathic? He still didn't buy the whole witch idea yet.

"They stole your memories?"

"Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me," Jack said, gesturing to the Doctor, "And for all I know he's right not to. Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?"

Fed up with Jack talking down about himself, Hermione slammed her book shut, "Jack you may not remember two years, but that doesn't make you a bad person. You saved my life. You saved Rose! Quit with the self-deprecation. I'll believe you're a bad man who can't be trusted when you give me reason to do so."

Jack grinned at her fondly, "I'll remember that kitten, and thank you."

She nodded back at him. "Good, now let's go check out the crash site." As she put her large book back into a very tiny beaded bag the Doctor's eyes widened in disbelief. Maybe she had access to time lord technology?

Jack beamed the group down the abandoned railway platform. "There it is. Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

"We've got to get past him," the Doctor pointed out.

Rose smiled, "Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?"

The Doctor and Hermione both frowned sourly at her while Jack just grinned, "I don't think that'd be such a good idea."

"Don't worry I can handle it."

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him. Don't wait up."

Rose looked shocked, Hermione just grinned and winked at Jack as he smiled back at her, and the Doctor put a hand on Rose's shoulder. "Relax, he's a fifty-first-century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing," he teased her.

"How flexible?"

"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."

"Meaning?"

"So many species, so little time," he gloated.

Rose looked a little disgusted, "What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and-"

"Dance," the Doctor said with a huge grin splitting his face. Hermione was using her hands to try and muffle her laughter.

The three watched Jack approach Algy and then looked on in horror as the officer was transformed into a gas mask person. They realized the effect must have become air-borne. Meanwhile, the air raid sirens had started up again. Rose threw her head back in frustration, "All we need. Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"

The Doctor shushed her, "Never mind about that. If the contaminant is airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?" Jack asked.

"Till nothing, forever. For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?"

Hermione pointed to a large structure with wooden doors, "Over there! The singing is coming from in here!"

The Doctor raced over and freed Nancy from where she was locked to the table with a transformed person slumped over while she sang a lullaby.

The group converged around the crashed spacecraft while Jack made sure the area was lit up and uncovered the craft. "You see? Just an ambulance."

Nancy looked dubious at the cylindrical shaped object, "That's an ambulance?"

Rose gently touched her shoulder. "It's hard to explain. It's from another world."

Jack remarked that the military had been trying to get into the ship, and the Doctor gave him a disbelieving look, "Of course they have. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it," Jack explained as he keyed in access codes. There was a bang, then sparks and an alarm went off. "That didn't happen last time."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "It hadn't crashed last time. There'll be emergency protocols."

"Doctor, what is that?" Rose was alarmed at the sound of patients descending from the nearby hospital. "Doctor!"

"Captain, secure those gates!"

"Why?"

"Just do it! Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

She pointed to a darkened part of the fence, "I cut the wire."

"Show Rose. Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight D," he told Rose, tossing her his sonic screwdriver. "Reattaches barbed wire. Go!"

With Nancy off with Rose, Hermione pushed Jack out of the way, "Move over, let me try."

The Doctor watched as Hermione waved her wand and murmured something and the ambulance opened. He was slowly coming around to the idea she might be telling the truth.

Jack gestured to the interior of the ambulance, "It's empty. Look at it."

Rose and Nancy rejoined the others around the fallen ship and the Doctor barked at Jack, "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?"

"I don't know," she said, looking confused.

"Yes, you do," he held up his hands, wiggling his fingers.

Her face brightened as she cried, "Nanogenes!"

"It wasn't empty, Captain. There were enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God," Jack looked horrified. Hermione took his hand, a look of dread on her face.

"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gas mask."

Rose looked shocked, "And they brought him back to life? They can do that?"

The Doctor shrugged, "What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know," Jack cried. Hermione wrapped her arms around him and he clung to her.

Rose was watching the gates sway as they were crowded by the patients. "It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"

The Doctor nodded, "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."

"But the gas mask people aren't troops."

"They are now. This is a battlefield ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, program you."

"That's why the child's so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing."

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of an hysterical four-year-old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

The patients had surrounded the railway station by that point, outside the barbed wire but crowding in more and more.

Jack raised his head from Hermione's shoulder where she'd been rubbing his back and whispering soothingly to him. "Why don't they attack?"

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."

"The child?" Jack asked.

"Jamie," Nancy interrupted. "Not the child. Jamie."

Rose looked to Jack, "So how long until the bomb falls?"

"Any second."

Glaring at Jack, the Doctor sneered, "What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?"

Hermione glowered at the Doctor. She'd never traveled this incarnation of the Doctor, and only met him briefly once when she was 8 years old, but she wasn't liking her first real impression all that much.

Nancy looked near tears, "He's just a little boy. He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."

"I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."

"So what're we going to do?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"It's my fault," Nancy lamented.

"No," the Doctor told her sternly.

"It is. It's all my fault."

"How can it be your-"

All of the patients started pleading, "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

Looking her over carefully, the Doctor asked gently, "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?"

Jack interrupted, "Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds."

Rose went wide eyed, "You can teleport us out."

"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols."

Hermione frowned, "And there's no way I can apparate four people safely."

"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do," the Doctor told Jack, barely glancing at him.

Jack squared his shoulders and pulled Hermione into a tight hug before he stepped back. He vanished in a quick flash of light and both Rose and Hermione called out, "Jack?!"

The Doctor turned his attention back to Nancy, "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him."

The bomb site gates opened and they turned to see Jaime standing there, at the head of a horde of gasmask people. "Are you my mummy?"

"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop," the Doctor told her, with a hand on her shoulder.

"Mummy?"

"Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."

Hermione watched with bated breath as Nancy and Jamie walked towards each other. He kept asking if she was his mummy, and she tried to reassure him yes, she was. But it wasn't working.

The Doctor sighed in frustration, "He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left."

Nancy knelt on the ground and took Jaime into her arms. "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry."

As she hugged Jamie they were surrounded by a huge cloud of nanogenes.

Rose asked the Doctor, "What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should-"

The Doctor looked hopeful, "Shush! Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."

"What's happening?"

"See? Recognizing the same DNA. Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one."

After a few moments the glow subsided and he stepped over to Jamie and pulled off his gas mask, exclaiming it utter joy, "Ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."

Nancy picked herself up off the ground, "What happened?"

"The nanogenes recognized the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!" he crowed happily.

"Oh, Jamie."

Rose was pleased but remembered something important, "Doctor, that bomb."

"Taken care of it."

"How?"

"Psychology."

A bomb hurtled towards them and was caught in Jack's tractor beam seconds before impact. For some reason Hermione couldn't fathom Jack was sitting astride the bomb. "Doctor!"

"Good lad!"

"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."

"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Goodbye. Hermione?"

"Jack?"

"See ya around kitten," he said with a wink as he and the bomb vanished. The spaceship soon flew off and Hermione bit her lip, wondering just what Jack was doing.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was summoning nanogenes to himself, surrounding his hands in a golden glow and he grinned. Rose was confused, "What are you doing?"

"Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves."

He threw the nanogenes to all the patients waiting around and they all fell to the ground. Smiling and opening his arms wide he exclaimed happily, "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!" Rose and Hermione both smiled at him, happy to see him so pleased.

As the patients all stood up, returned to health, the Doctor approached Doctor Constantine and gave him a hand. "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now."

The older man looked around, a bit baffled but pleased, "Yes, yes, so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?"

As the Doctor walked back to the ambulance and started fiddling with the controls Hermione was helping others right themselves on their feet and watched as an older woman hobbled up to Doctor Constantine. "Doctor Constantine."

"Mrs. Harcourt. How much better you're looking."

"My leg's grown back. When I come to the hospital, I had one leg."

Pursing his lips, Constantine raised an eyebrow and asked, "Well, there is a war on. Is it possible you miscounted?"

Hermione laughed outright at that and rejoined the Doctor and Rose. "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state! Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

Rose snarked with a smile, "Usually the first in line."

The trio soon found and entered the TARDIS but Hermione hung back near the doors, unsure of her welcome. The Doctor ran about the control panel pushing buttons and pulling levers, "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!"

Rose grinned at him, "Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas."

"Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?"

Rose looked shocked, "What?"

"And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."

"Doctor," Rose started.

"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire."

Finally Rose asked the same question Hermione wanted answered, "What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?"

"Because there's a good chance he wasn't going to be able to escape without the bomb going off. He sacrificed himself."

"No!" Hermione shouted, rushing forward. Tears filled her eyes and her cheeks flushed pink, "You can't just leave him! He saved us! Now we have to save him!"

"And why should I do that?"

"Because he's a good person! I'd go save him myself but if he's in space I can't apparate far enough. Please, Doctor, please, he's my friend and he saved us."

"Okay, fine." He rushed around adjusting the controls and suddenly the doors opened in Jack's spaceship. They peaked out the doors to see Jack sitting back, enjoying a martini, not noticing their presence. The Doctor turned on Moonlight Serenade and that finally got the Captain's attention.

Rose smiled and waved. "Well, hurry up then!"

Jack ran inside the TARDIS, tilting his head as he watched Rose and the Doctor attempting to dance. Hermione stood next to him and looped her arm through his own and smiled.

Rose was attempting to give the Doctor directions, "Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson."

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff," the Doctor lamented. Turning to Jack, "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught."

Hermione went and shut the door while the Doctor started up the engines. "Welcome to the TARDIS."

"Much bigger on the inside," Jack remarked, looking around curiously. He'd heard about the ship from Hermione during their fortnight together but it was something else to see in person.

Rose laughed, "I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in."

But the Doctor wouldn't stand for that, "Rose! I've just remembered!"

"What?"

The music changed from the romantic Moonlight Serenade to the more upbeat swing rhythm of In The Mood, also from Glenn Miller.

"I can dance! I can dance!" He seemed extremely pleased with himself and he danced a jazz square, snapping his fingers and grinning.

"Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance."

"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?"

The Doctor swept Rose away to dance with him while Jack turned to Hermione. He bowed with a wink and held out his hand. Laughingly they joined the other couple dancing around the console room, both girls shrieking with laughter when dipped.