The Doctor and Martha checked out with his marmalade and bananas. Martha had to pay because of course the Doctor didn't have any cash on him that he could find. As they walked back towards the Plaza, the Doctor said, "I think I'd like you and Jack and Mickey to meet Jeanne, and I know you're not that kind of Doctor, but if you see any signs of anything disturbing, if you'd let me know. We're going to be staying for a couple of days, how about you three come over for dinner tonight in the TARDIS?" Martha nodded, and as they reached the Plaza, she headed towards the hub entrance. "I'll tell the guys and you can tell the TARDIS and Jeanne that we're coming. 7 o'clock all right?" He nodded, and snapped his fingers to open the TARDIS doors. He was humming softly to himself as he walked in, and he headed to the kitchen to drop off his purchases. "We're going to be having company for dinner tonight; Jack and Mickey and Martha. Do you think you could whip up something nice for the 5 of us to eat? I'd like to introduce them to Jeanne... if you don't mind." He suddenly realized it might have been rude for him to invite guests to meet her Companion. The ship hummed happily, "We would like that. I will move a dining room closer to the Console Room for you." The Doctor grinned, "Brilliant, you are! They'll be here about 7." He finished unloading the dozen jars of marmalade and the bananas and helped himself to one before setting the rest on the counter. He headed for the console room to check on the refueling and asked as casually as he could, "So, what have you and Jeanne been up to while I was out?" The TARDIS hummed again, "I've been showing her the suite of rooms I prepared for her. She likes them very much! She is very happy here, and it is so nice not to be all alone while you're gone." The Doctor frowned, it had never occurred to him that the TARDIS would feel lonely when he and his Companions had left her for their numerous adventures. He grinned, "Well you certainly won't be alone tonight with our little dinner party. I think I'm going to go read in the library until they arrive." He headed for the library, noting that there were a couple of extra turns. "I moved the Library around just a bit so that Jeanne would have easier access to it." The Doctor nodded, and re-checked his shielding, as that thought must have leaked out for her to hear. He was so relaxed after his shopping trip, he had lost his focus. This was going to be quite the adjustment to make. When he reached the library he picked up one of his favorite books, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and dropped into a chair, throwing his legs over one arm and putting a pillow behind his back, he let himself get lost in the pages of the book.
Meanwhile Jeanne was exploring the variety of clothes stored away in the wardrobe, she could play dress-up for days on end, there were clothes from different time periods in Earth's history as well as some that had to be alien. It was so exciting to her. She held up a unusual looking pink frock and looked at herself in the mirror, exclaiming, "Oh won't Michael think this is lovely!" It took a couple of seconds for what she said to sink into her own mind, and her mood went from joyous to sad in an instant. *Michael won't ever be able to see this. I'm only seeing this because Michael is gone.* She re-hung the dress in the wardrobe and went back out to the bedroom and climbed up onto the soft bed. The tears had just begun to flow when she heard Ardi moving about the room. "Oh Jeanne, my Doctor just returned and we're having guests tonight for dinner!" She moved around the bed and saw Jeanne was crying. "Oh Jeanne, my Jeanne, what's wrong? Aren't you happy with your room any more?" Jeanna sat up and rubbed at her eyes, "No, Ardi, it's not that. It's simply beautiful and amazing and I can't believe it is all for me. I was just wishing that Michael could be here to see it." Ardi climbed up to sit on the bed next to her. "Michael was your husband who died. You loved him very much, didn't you?" Jeanne nodded, and another tear dropped down her check. Ardi nodded, "My Doctor has lost people he has loved too. The girl Rose that I told you about before, she touched his hearts like only a couple of people have before. I think it broke both of his hearts to have to leave her behind again, especially when he had to leave Donna behind as well and it left him all alone. They are both still alive, but it's as if they are dead to him because he can never see either of them again." Jeanne glanced at her, "Two hearts?" Ardi nodded, "He is a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey, and while he may look human to you, he is different in many ways. One way he is similar is that he has kindness in his hearts. Especially this incarnation, he is probably the most emotional of the 10." Jeanne continued to stare at her, "10? What on Earth do you mean?" Ardi smiled, "One of the abilities of a Time Lord is to regenerate his body when gravely injured. A Time Lord normally has a total of 12 reincarnations, or 13 lives, available to him. My Doctor is currently on his 10th incarnation. Each new body is different both physically and in personality. His first was very grouchy a lot of the time. The fourth was very silly at times. The ninth was hurt and angry, that was right after the Time War that destroyed his homeworld and his race. This one is probably the most emotional of them all so far."
Jeanne found it very confusing to think of someone having 10 different faces and personalities. She spoke slowly, "I'd like to learn more about your Doctor and these past versions of himself. Maybe you could show me sometime. Right now though, I think I'd like to rest if we're going to have company tonight. Will you wake me about an hour before they arrive so I can dress?" Ardi nodded and climbed off the bed while Jeanne lay back down. "Thank you, Ardi. You've saved me from myself and I'm so grateful. I'll do my best to be the best Companion ever." Ardi smiled and waved before fading away. Jeanne rolled over and allowed the tears to fall. She missed her family so much, there was such a large hole in her heart where they were. But for the first time since the accident, she felt a glimmer of hope that maybe there was a future for her after all. Her life didn't end when her family's did - it didn't have to anyway. She was definitely needed here by Ardi. She drifted off to sleep, enjoying the feeling of being needed again.
Jeanne awoke when a chime sounded, "Jeanne, it is 6 o'clock and our guests will be arriving in an hour." Jeanne sat up and stretched. She felt more rested than she had since the accident, and hadn't had a single bad dream during her nap. She climbed down from the bed and hurried into the wardrobe. "How fancy a dinner party is this going to be, Ardi?" "Not that fancy, it's just my Doctor's friends Martha, Mickey, and Jack. I think a nice dress or blouse and slacks would be fine." Jeanne wasn't sure how much real fashion knowledge Ardi had, and decided to go for a soft blue dress that brought out the blue in her eyes. It was modest, but stylish. She brought the dress out and found underwear to match and carried the whole thing into the bathroom. She wanted to take a hot soaking bath, and make a good impression on the Doctor's friends. As she undressed, Ardi started the water running and Jeanne poured in some bubble bath. "Tell me about these friends of the Doctor, would you Ardi?" After she climbed into the tub, Ardi appeared in the room wearing a robe. Jeanne giggled at the sight. Ardi sat on the dressing bench and began to speak. "Well, Mickey was Rose's boyfriend when the Doctor and Rose first met, back in his ninth incarnation." Jeanne interjected, "That was the hurt and angry version, right?" Ardi nodded. "When they returned to visit Rose's mother, Mickey went with them when they left. We accidentally slipped into a parallel universe, and Mickey chose to stay there. He saw that he had lost Rose's heart to the Doctor and wanted to make a new life for himself there. After we saved the Earth from the Daleks and put the planet back in place, he choose to stay here in this universe as there wasn't anything left for him back in the parallel universe any more." Jeanne looked at Ardi in awe. "You mean YOU were the one who saved the Earth?" Ardi nodded again, "I helped, everyone helped, my Doctor's Children of Time. Anyway, Martha travelled with this incarnation for about a year or so and is a Doctor herself. Very bright woman, she's done work for both UNIT and Torchwood." Jeanne interjected again, "Who's that?" Ardi smiled, "UNIT and Torchwood are two organizations here in England that protect the Earth from alien invasions, but in different ways. The Doctor used to work for UNIT during his third incarnation when he was exiled to Earth for a time and couldn't travel. Jack works for Torchwood and is the leader of the office here in Cardiff that monitors the rift that I'm using to refuel myself. He is... well, Jack is a bit difficult to explain exactly. Rose and I sort of, well, broke him." Jeanne sat up in the tub, "Broke him? What do you mean?" Ardi looked very uncomfortable and actually squirmed a bit on her seat. "Well, you see, my Doctor, the ninth incarnation of him, Rose and Jack were on a space station over Earth in the future, facing a Dalek invasion. The Doctor knew it was a lost cause and sent me and Rose back to London in her own time, to keep her safe and me out of the hands of the Daleks. I didn't like it at all, but understood I am too powerful to allow myself to be captured. He had promised Rose's mother that he would keep her safe, and so sent her home. Rose liked it even less. She remembered something that my Doctor had done before, accessing my Heart to change someone. She thought if she could look into my Heart, she could talk to me and we'd go back to the Doctor and save him." Jeanne interrupted, "What exactly is your Heart?" Ardi smiled, "The Heart of the TARDIS is a piece of the Time Vortex. It allows me to connect to it and travel through it. Anyway, Rose and Mickey tore open the Console to expose my heart, and she looked into it, and I looked into her. It hurt, but it worked. That is when we merged to form Bad Wolf. We went back and destroyed the Daleks and saved the Doctor. Jack had been killed defending the station, and we brought him back to life. But we couldn't control the power properly and instead of just bringing him back to life we brought him back - well, kind of permanently." She looked down, ashamed of what she had done. Jeanne blinked, "What do you mean permanently? Like, you made him immortal?" Ardi nodded, "Jack won't age, or if he does it's at a very slow rate, and he cannot die. Oh he dies, but then he comes back to life again, injuries all gone, just like back on the station. The Doctor and I can both sense the difference in him, he is a blip in the time line that should never have happened. The power was consuming Rose, and so my Doctor took the power of the Vortex away from Rose and gave it back to me. The cost was his life, and that is when he regenerated into his current incarnation. When he gave the energy back to me, there was a bit of Rose mixed up within it. That has been lying dormant within me until you came along."
Jeanne began to wash herself, amazed at all of this information. "I feel like I've dropped right into the middle of a science-fiction show like Star Trek or something." Ardi smiled, "Rose used to tease my Doctor about not being Spock enough for an alien." Jeanne laughed and finished up her bath. Ardi stood up and brought her over a large fluffy towel, holding it front of her as she rose from the tub. As Jeanne wrapped the towel around herself, Ardi said, "I need to go finish dinner. When you're ready to go, you can follow the path to the Console Room to greet our guests, all right?" Jeanne nodded, and Ardi faded away. She moved over to the dressing table, and found a mixture of all kinds of makeup available. She brushed out her hair and began to plan her makeup as she got dressed. She put a towel around her shoulders to protect the dress from any accidents and applied her makeup. She sent out a mental call to Ardi, "How much longer do I have?" and Ardi replied, "15 more minutes". She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked pretty good if she did say so herself. The dress did set off her eyes, and the makeup emphasized them just a little. She had lost a bit of weight in the past couple of weeks, but the dress fit her to perfection. Heading back to her room, she found a matching pair of shoes and then left her room. Once again the slight tugging sensation guided her towards the Console Room. She got there to see the Doctor flipping switches and talking to his ship, "Primary cells are all charged, let's go ahead and get all of the backups charged as well, no telling when we'll be back or what we'll run into in the meantime." He glanced up as she entered the room and he froze for a moment. It reminded him of so many times that Rose had come out to show him an outfit before they left the TARDIS for one of their adventures, he had to catch his breath. He walked over towards her smiling, "Jeanne, I hope you don't mind me inviting my friends to dinner tonight, I know it was short notice. I figured if you're going to be travelling on the TARDIS you might as well meet some of my friends, although I don't know how often we'll see them as we're travelling all over time and space and all that and I'm rambling again so I'll be quiet now and by the way, you look very nice, Ardi provided you a good wardrobe I hope you found everything you needed." He finally stopped talking only when one of his own hands covered his mouth. He was nervous, really nervous, about Jeanne meeting his friends. He was also nervous about having checked up on her and having Mickey research her. It felt now like an invasion of her privacy but he was only trying to protect his beloved ship... and himself. Just then there was a sound from the door, and the doors opened to reveal three people walking into the Console Room.
The black woman in the middle was tucking a key back into her blouse, so she must have a key to the TARDIS, and was obviously Martha. Jeanne looked back and forth between the two men trying to figure out which was Jack and which was Mickey. She had just decided that Mickey was the tall dark haired man when the Doctor stepped forward to make introductions. "Martha Jones, this is Jeanne McCormick, lately of America." Jeanne automatically reached out a hand to shake the woman's hand. The Doctor continued, "This young man is Mickey Smith from London and Torchwood's computer technician." He indicated the young black man, and she reached out to shake his hand. That meant the tall dark haired man was Jack. She turned to meet him but before the Doctor could continue his introductions, Jack stuck out his hand and said in a strong American voice, "Captain Jack Harkness, leader of Torchwood here in Cardiff, and I'm so very pleased to meet you, Ms. McCormick." She already had stuck out her hand to be shaken, but Jack bent over and pulled her hand up to kiss the back of it. As soon as he touched her hand, she could feel just a taste of the wrongness of his existence, a hint of what Ardi must have meant when she said she could sense him. As he rose back up, he winked at her. Winked? *Oh my god, was he flirting with her?* That felt even more wrong than his existance. Even as the Doctor said, "Not now, Jack", Jeanne extracted her hand and moved back, putting herself slightly behind the Doctor so he was between her and Jack. Both Jack and the Doctor rose their eyebrows in surprise at her reaction. The Doctor turned and took her hand, putting it over his arm. She was trembling slightly. "If you'd like to follow us to the dining room, I believe dinner is about to be served." Jack offered an arm to Martha, and Mickey quickly did the same on the other side. Laughing, she took each of their arms and the three of them followed the first two down the corridor to the dining room. The Doctor found himself patting her hand in comfort as it rested in the crook of his arm, and he gave her one of his most pleasant smiles. She eventually returned his smile tentatively by the time they reached the open doors to the dining room and had stopped trembling.
The TARDIS had prepared roast beef with roasted potatoes, salad, mixed vegetables, and a large chocolate cake with a layer of bananas sitting on top of the layer of frosting. The Doctor sat at the head of the small table with Jeanne to his left and Martha to his right. Mickey headed to Jeanne's side of the table, forcing Jack to sit next to Martha. All three of them had obviously picked up on the negative reaction Jeanne had towards Jack. They began to pass around the food and filled up their plates. Mickey was the first to speak, "So Jeanne, what did you do in America before coming aboard the TARDIS?" Jeanne paused in the bite she was about to take. "I had been working as an accountant. I had just left my job when the Doctor and I crossed paths." She finished her bite when Martha asked, "Do you have any family you'll be visiting from time to time?" Jeanne froze in her chair, and looked up at Martha with a wide-eyed look of fear and sadness. "No, no family to speak of, there is just me in the world now." She looked down at her plate, *Oh Ardi, I wish you were here to help me, not just in my mind! This is so hard. I want his friends to like me, but if they know what I was going to do, maybe they won't*. Mickey piped in, "Well, that's the way it is for me too. My family is all gone here now, or living in the parallel universe where I can't see them no more." Jack said softly, "The Torchwood team has become my family, along with the others I know who know the Doctor. Sometimes you make your own family through connections like that when you don't have anyone else." Jeanne glanced up at him. His voice and tone were very different from the flirtacious man from the Console Room. She nodded and replied just as softly, "Yes, I think you might be right. Ardi has told me many wonderful things about the Doctor's Children of Time, which are sort of his family now." She glanced towards him, and found him looking at her very thoughtfully. Before anyone could ask, the Doctor said, "Yes, the TARDIS now has a real name. Her name is Ardi." He smiled at Jeanne, and Jeanne smiled back. She had wondered if he resented someone else naming the ship he had travelled in for so long. It appeared he was not, and that was such a relief to her. The tension in the room faded and conversation turned much lighter as they enjoyed the fine meal that the TARDIS had prepared for them.