"The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times."

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Chapter 6: Stage Five, Moving On

To say Susan was conflicted would be a huge understatement.

Just days ago, she had found out that she was in fact stranded in the Doctor Who universe and all those people and aliens whose lives she had followed on telly were completely, utterly real.

And as if that wasn't enough, she had received evidence in the form of a picture and a mysterious note, that her future self had gone gallivanting with the universe's equivalent of the Dark Lord, and was now posing as the stepsister of the said Dark Lord. Harold Saxon's stepsister.

Although the Master wasn't actually completely evil when compared to the likes of Voldemort. He was more like a person down on their luck against the universe, such as Anakin Skywalker, who had been good until he got unhinged because of his visions and had later been manipulated by Palpatine. Just like the young Darth Vader, the Master had been driven insane by something he couldn't control, the sound of drums in his head. Which just happened to be a signal sent by the High Council and that bastard Rassilon through the Untempered Schism, reaching the Master through time and space, slowly making him insane.

The heartbeat of a Time Lord.

As Susan settled in to her new apartment, she decided that the best way to deal with what was happening would be to accept it for now without over thinking it. Despite her knowledge about this universe's future, she couldn't see her own personal future and had no way of knowing how she ended up with the Master. Who knows, maybe the dude kidnapped her.

For now it was best to just assume that somehow, she would meet either the Doctor, or the Master. And there was a 99% chance it had to do with the Weeping Angels. If she started worrying too much about it, she was going to go insane with worry.

So she pushed the issue aside for a while, and took a closer look at the leather bag she'd received in the mail. As she opened it, she indeed found a sonic screwdriver, modeled after the Eleventh Doctor's own. There was a post-it note attached to it.

"This is indeed a real sonic screwdriver, but it isn't just sonic," she read out. "Check the manual?"

Susan frowned and dug her hand inside the bag, feeling for something that would closely resemble a manual. She found a tiny leather notebook with handwritten instructions on some of the functions of the sonic. On the first page it said in large, bold letters:

ISOMORPHIC SONIC & LASER SCREWDRIVER: THE MANUAL.

Susan's eyebrows floated up to her hairline.

Oh boy.

She read the manual, and found that the instructions weren't as complicated as she'd feared. It only took an afternoon of trying and failing to get the basic principles of the thing down and memorize them.

Susan had read the note from her future self over and over again, and decided that it was better be safe than sorry, so she did as the note commanded and started carrying most of her belongings with her, including most of the clothes. The bag seemed to be bottomless and could easily hold several wardrobes worth of clothes.

Few weeks later, still unsuccessful in her search of a job, Susan made a surprise visit to Torchwood Three. She did her best to sneak past the cameras, even though she wasn't sure where every single one of them is located, and made her way into the tourist office without anyone stopping her.

To her surprise, the office was empty and silent.

Susan stood awkwardly around for a few minutes, looking at the brochures and waiting for Ianto to pop out of the back room or through the secret door, but nothing happened. She frowned, and walked behind the desk to reach the button that swings open the secret passage.

The corridor was equally empty. Susan shrugged. What harm could it do? She was just visiting. It's not like she hadn't been to the Hub before, after all. And she didn't even bring any unsuspecting friends with her.

As she took the lift down, Susan tried to listen for any sound of the team, in case they were just messing around and about to jump on her. But there was nothing. She swallowed nervously and pushed down on the button to open the cog-wheel door. It opened with its signature noise, announcing her arrival to the Torchwood Cardiff team.

But nobody greeted her. The whole Hub was silent.

"Uh, anybody here?" Susan called out at the doorway. "Jack? Ianto? ... Owen?"

She braved inside the Hub and looked around. Owen's workspace was empty, as was Jack's office. She couldn't hear anything except for the soothing sound of the waterfall.

"You shouldn't be here," Ianto said from somewhere behind her, scaring the shit out of her.

"Oh my god," Susan said, and grinned with her hand at her chest. "Don't creep on me like that." She turned around, and her grin vanished at the sight of Ianto's tired and tear streaked face. Her hand fell down beside her. "Ianto?"

"Hello, Susan," Ianto greeted her.

"Are you okay?" Susan said, frowning at the tired man. "What's going on? Where is everyone?"

"Jack's dead," Ianto said and headed towards the kitchen, leaving Susan gaping at his retreating back.

"What?" Susan said, running after him, "But he's..."

"It's permanent this time," Ianto droned and started cleaning the kitchen counter, not looking at her. "The Abaddon sucked the life force out of him. It's been a few days now."

"Oh." Susan swallowed, biting her lip. She didn't know what to say. She had no idea the timeline had progressed so quickly. It wouldn't be long before Jack left with the Doctor. "Uh, where are the others?"

Ianto glanced at her. "Gwen's downstairs," he said and pursed his lips, clearly in irritation. "She insisted on staying at his side." Ianto obviously wanted some privacy with Jack. "I don't know where Tosh and Owen are."

At that moment, Toshiko appeared at the kitchen's doorway. "Ianto, I was wondering-" she said, and stopped, noticing Susan. "Oh, hello Susan. How are you?"

Susan narrowed her eyes. "Don't even ask me," she said, frowning. "Are you okay?"

Toshiko stilled, suddenly looking like she must have actually felt like. "I'm okay," she said quietly, looking down. "I just came up from the morgue."

Susan blinked. "With Gwen?"

"She's still not leaving," Toshiko said, shaking her head. "I was hoping to persuade her."

Something about the image of Gwen and Toshiko down at the morgue made Susan wonder... Oh. Right. If she remembered correctly, Jack was about to wake up.

"Guys," Susan said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "You should have called me."

"We didn't want to trouble you," Ianto explained, putting some dishes away into a cabinet. "You have enough troubles." Toshiko nodded in agreement.

"No, you don't get it," Susan said, groaning. "Jack's going to be okay."

Ianto dropped a plate. It shattered on the floor. "What?" he breathed, turning around.

"He's going to be okay!" Susan said, glancing from Ianto to Toshiko, who were both staring at her with wide eyes. "He's gonna wake up any moment. Actually, it shouldn't be long now."

Toshiko and Ianto swapped glances, and ran past her out of the kitchen. Susan sighed and followed them.

The sight that greeted her was like straight from the TV show. Gwen and Jack appeared hand in hand from the direction of the morgue. Toshiko and Ianto stopped in their tracks, and just stared, both their eyes watering at the sight. Toshiko was the first to move, running straight into Jack's arms and giving him a bear hug.

Next was Ianto, who waited for Toshiko to let go. Then he promptly kissed jack. It was a very sweet, chaste kiss. It made Susan squee internally. She really wished she'd taken out her camera.

Then, Owen returned from where ever he'd been, carrying a tool kit, which he almost dropped as he saw Jack. Jack gave him a hug too, and Susan could swear he heard Owen let out a quiet sniffle.

Susan let them have their moment, and only approached Jack when everyone seemed to be content with just watching Jack stand there.

"Captain," Susan said, saluting him as she walked towards the team.

"Susan," Jack said, giving her a tired but genuine smile.

"No hug for me?" She teased, crossing her arms.

Jack smiled ruefully, and engulfed Susan in a bear hug. She grinned and hugged back.

"You look pale," she said as Jack let go of her. She grinned. "Have you been skipping your veggies?"

Jack raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"You know," Susan continued, her grin widening even more. "An apple a day keeps the Doctor away."

Jack laughed. "Then I better keep away from apples."

Susan glanced at the rest of the team, who were all trying not to listen to their conversation. She hesitated for a moment. "Jack..." she started, seriously.

Jack noticed her glance. "Yeah?" he asked, and motioned for them to walk towards his office for some privacy.

Susan bit her lip. "I just wanted to say thank you."

Jack looked at her. "For what?"

"You know, for helping me out in here, giving me money to buy the basics I needed," Susan said. "I wouldn't even have any ID's without you guys."

Jack smiled. "It's the least we could have done," he said. "It's our job."

"I know," Susan said as they reached his office. "But still... And I'd like to say one more thing."

Jack sat behind his desk. "Hmm?"

Susan couldn't stop the smirk from forming. "I won't be seeing you in a while," she said quoting Canton Everett Delaware the Third from season six. She backed towards the doorway, and winked. "But, you'll be seeing me."

She had time to see Jack's amused expression before she turned around and sauntered towards the cog wheel door. Feeling like her work there was done, she said goodbyes to Ianto, Tosh and Owen, and stepped inside the lift, putting her coat back on.

Back the ground floor, Susan looked down to adjust her shoulder bag. Then she looked back up, ready to start walking towards the secret door, but froze as she noticed something standing in front of her.

The lightning on the corridor was bad, but she could clearly make out the silhouette of an angel.

'Shit', Susan thought, her eyes widening. And then...

She blinked.