Friday
The Torchwood hub was empty by the time the TARDIS materialised. Jack had sent the team home. In the last three days, no one had had any sleep and when it got to the point of worrying about peoples' abilities to stand up straight, it was really time to get them away from the machinery. There wasn't even that much for them all to do which seemed strange given that hurricanes were raging across the country at random but all they could do was head to worst hit places and survey the damage.
And that's all there was. Damage. No children in danger. Nobody suffocated by petals. Of course that was a good thing but it also made him feel increasingly uneasy. It was as if every person in the country was being held to ransom, threatened by forces by nature and for what?
He squinted at the view of Cardiff bay in front of him. For a second there, if he looked hard enough, it seemed that all he could see were trees. Lines and lines of trees...and a heavy mist covering the petals on the ground...
He shook his head. Clearly his team weren't the only ones in need of sleep.
He watched as the TARDIS doors open and smiled at Jenny's face as she took in the difference in the place since the last time she'd been.
"What do you think?" Jack asked her.
"Much better!" She grinned at him. "It feels more real."
"Untidy, you mean."
She gazed around her.
"It's like there's energy in the walls...like it has its own heartbeat."
"Rift energy. Not everyone can sense it. Well done!"
The Doctor raced over to a screen and began to examine it intently.
"Hello to you too," Jack said pointedly and when he was ignored, "You took your time."
"Someone else did that."
"What?"
"We headed to Earth five minutes ago. Whatever's going on here is affecting the Time Vortex, Jack. We just got lucky that I spotted it. Could have been weeks getting here. The Rift guided us in. That's why we're here and I'm going to need your Vortex Manipulator before we go any further. Can't risk the same thing happening before I get to Donna."
Jack unstrapped his wrist device and laid it down on the desk beside him.
"Can you see the creatures?"
"They don't show up on anything."
"Even the TARDIS?"
"I can detect their energy. That's about it, and even then, only when I know what I'm looking for. I should have known. They interfere with time...and time travelling. The TARDIS would never have taken Donna and Jenny away without me. But I'd been experimenting with the controls, thought it was my own doing. And there was nothing...nothing to see, no consequences. They were back in minutes."
"The TARDIS just took them away?"
The Doctor nodded absently. "I understand how but I have to say, the whys of this situation are baffling me and it's not many species who can do that." He surveyed Jack in silence.
"You're worried, Jack."
"And you're not? Have you seen these things in action?"
He tried very hard not to think of the last person he'd known not to take fairies seriously.
"Time and nature. Two things you humans have no control over. Well, most of you anyway." He watched Jack for a moment more then turned back to the screen.
Jack let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. He opened his mouth to ask a question but Jenny caught hold of his arm and signalled to him that she wanted to say something. She also appeared to not want the Doctor to hear her.
"I wondered..." She was clearly trying her best to sound off-hand, "about these things that are happening with the weather. Would time-travelling cause them? If you, accidently, maybe changed something. Something small...but still..."
"Why do you ask that?" Jack asked, hoping that the jolt that question had given him hadn't transferred itself into his voice.
"No...I just wondered," Jenny said quickly. "I just thought maybe...with all the time travelling we do..."
"The Doctor has that under control," Jack said. He looked at her, curious now. Clearly something was worrying her.
"Yeah...'course he does," she agreed vaguely.
She followed Jack back to the screen where the Doctor, as if only becoming aware of their presence, turned around to them.
"Your communication systems are down," he said.
"They've been like that for the best part of the week. We fix them and the weather kicks off and we fix them again."
"Your communications systems shouldn't be affected by the weather."
"Exactly!"
The Doctor tapped a few buttons. "I must say, this weather is remarkably localised. Apart from yesterday. Why might that be?"
"Yesterday it settled for a few hours," Jack said, "that's why I was able to contact you."
"Funny. A few hours."
"Sometimes it can come and go."
"Like me," the Doctor said.
"You said it."
"And like the TARDIS."
"What?"
"Every time the weather settles down, Jack, corresponds with the times that the TARDIS hasn't been on Earth."
"Oh....so that would mean..." The sensation of cold water down his back was so intense, he almost reached up to see if his shirt was wet.
"Something's trying very hard to get my attention."
"Much as I sympathise with them on that score, it doesn't sound good."
"When you contacted me yesterday, Jenny and I were touring around Tero. Well, I say touring but it was more like..."
"Running for your lives?" Jack smirked, despite the situation. "What'd you do, Jenny? Jenny?"
He turned around.
"Jenny! Where are you gone? You can't just wander around here!"
"She'll take that as a challenge," the Doctor murmured.
Jack glanced around at the row of screens over their heads.
"Doctor, she's gone. She's not showing up anywhere."
The Doctor spun around.
"TARDIS is still here. Seriously, I wouldn't put it past her to...Jack? What is it?"
"My Vortex Manipulator's gone!"
"What?"
"It was on that desk."
"Are you sure?" The Doctor looked wildly at the screens. "You're sure she's not here? Jenny!"
"She was asking me if this weather's been caused by a time-traveller making a mistake."
Please say it couldn't possibly be.
The Doctor turned back to him and his eyes were like steel.
"Your Vortex Manipulator can't time-travel at the moment."
"Well..."
"Jack, please tell me your Vortex Manipulator can't time-travel at the moment."
"Let's just go," Jack said, "we can track it. Find her."
Desperately he glanced at the screens, as if hoping for divine intervention. The Doctor had already strode across the hub and towards the waiting TARDIS.
"Hang on!" Jack felt weak with relief at the sight on the screen above him. "She's here! Doctor, she's at the vaults." He spoke into the nearest intercom. "Jenny! Get back here!"
The girl turned to the screen and gave him a cheeky smile before making her way down the hallway.
"It's alright," Jack repeated.
"Is it?" The Doctor's voice sounded suddenly cold. "You're wondering why the world outside is apparently falling apart, Jack and in the meantime, you're all sailing off into the mists of time whenever the fancy takes you!"
"Jenny didn't have a choice! The TARDIS took them!"
"But you do."
"What?"
"It's written all over your face, Jack. You've done something. You think you're responsible for this."
"I don't! This was going on long before I..." Realising he'd walked into a trap, Jack decided to shut up for the time being. Jenny had appeared in front of them. Her face was slightly pale but there was something defiant in her face. She tossed the Vortex Manipulator on the desk.
"Just testing it." She looked up at them and her smile faded.
"What's wrong?"
"What did you do?" The Doctor's voice was cold.
"Nothing." Jenny met his gaze. "I didn't go anywhere with it. Well, not outside the building anyway."
"Why did you ask Jack about time travelling and mistakes?"
Jenny shot Jack of pure daggers and when she turned back to the Doctor, her eyes were bright with indignation.
"You think I'm the cause of this?"
"It's crossed my mind."
"Why? Why does it always have to be me? Because I'm not like the others? Because I'm only a clone?" She spat the last word out as if she could hardly bear to say it.
Jack waited for the Doctor to protest that he, least of anyone, thought of Jenny that way but instead, he surveyed her as if she was an interesting species he was studying.
"Into the TARDIS, both of you," he said shortly, "we're going to get Donna before this gets any worse and then we're going to talk."
He walked ahead of them.
In the silence, Jack winked at Jenny, trying somehow to make up for the Doctor's lack of response.
"Something tells me we're in for a bollocking," he whispered to her.